Rookie Hunters
by Swimstud600
Summary: A tale of rookies as they complete missions for the maverick hunters. Takes place after X8, it reveals the deaths of some characters and the decline of the maverick hunters, paving the way for the Zero series. Rated T for action sequences and some languag
1. Chapter 1

The three main characters are called Jet, Lixi and Reaver. Here are their bios.

Name: Jet  
Model number: 61203616007  
Height: 5'10"  
Weight: 160lbs.  
Weapon specialty: Sword (Will come up with a special name later.) and the Elemental Buster.  
Special Armor: Blue with golden trim. As he is being attacked he slowly builds up a tolerance, letteing him take greater damage to certain attacks. The trick however is surviving to build up this tolerance.  
Head- Machine Overide  
Body- Hyper Shockwave  
Arms- Elemental Cannon  
Legs- Jet boots  
Unit: Head of unit 6  
Short bio: Formerly a lone wolf mercenary this human struggles to find a purpose for his life. Recruited by Zero to defend the humans and repliods who DO know what their purpose is.

Name: Lixi  
Model number: 65393856809  
Height: 5'5"  
Weight: 135lb  
Special Armor: White with pink trimming. Long, pink hair comes out the base, front and sides of her helmet. Theres a space between her pants and boots (at her knee). Quiver strapped to the right side of her hip, and backup quiver on her back. Armour stops at her elbows and she has pink gloves. Armour is also pretty curve hugging.  
Weapon specialty: Electric Bow and Arrows  
Head- Sniper Vision  
Body- Shockwave (when arrow hits target)  
Arms- Fast Shots  
Legs- Hyper Dash  
Unit: Member of Unit 5  
Short bio: One of the newer modles, Lixi takes speed and accuracy over raw power. Likes to sniper from te back rather then go into the fray. Nice personality and makes friends easy.

Name: Reaver  
Model number: N/A  
Special Armor: Plain black, dark brown hair past the shoulders, no power gems. Weakness to extreme heat.  
Weapon specialty: Staff/Spears  
Head- Ability to use tissue of dead reploids to heal himself.  
Body- Short range teleportation  
Arms- Telekinetic blows  
Legs- Burn thrusters while dashing  
Unit: 9th Special Forces  
Short bio: Was created in the mid of a large battle at his base, he was SUPPOSED to be the new generation of fighter robots, able to handle all kinds of weaponry and practically unstoppable, but during the battle he was not finished yet, but scientists forced him to fight. Reaver's urge for honor and righteiousness didn't hestitaded a moment to fight the Mavericks. But was so blinded by the urge to protect the entire base, he couldn't manage and thus the base was destroyed. Seeing his scientists, which were his friends for life getting splattered all over the place, he just dropped to the ground crying. The mavericks didn't bother eradicating him, seeing how hopeless he was, and left the ruins. Hours later, Reaver stood up, walked away, and was looking for revenge. Although unfinished, and roughly equal to an average reploid, his only goal is to make his creators proud...

Reaver was roaming the lands, unsure of what to do. The images of the defeat still haunt his mind, the scientists screaming and dying. Leaning on his steel pipe, the only thing he managed to get out of the ruins, he watched the horizon. He noticed a huge building, the Maverick Hunter HQ! He hesitates, what if he went there? Would they help him out? Or would they suspect him being Maverick? He is about to turn around to walk away when he remembers his promise, he would make his makers proud and avenge them. He takes his chances and heads for the HQ hoping they would help him out, giving him a decent weapon, maybe even a better armor. And ultimately, a chance to avenge his makers...

"Rookies Attention!" Shouted the commander, instantly all the rookies complied.  
"Now that the introductions are done, it is time for the combat test. You will be given your chosen weapon to display your proficiency. As a reminder, we only take the best!"

30 minutes later

"Alright rookies, now that you have been tested for proficiency with weapons you will be fitted for your armors, they will be custom built and delivered to your quarters by tomorrow. Before anything let me go over the rules of staying in Maverick Hunter HQ."

1.) "No active weapons in the halls, we don't want any mishaps," the commander chuckled as he turned to see X and his friend Zero enter the room. X's face turned a light red as the commander finished the statement.  
"Isn't that right X?" laughed the commander as X's face turned a deeper red. Zero chuckled.  
2.) Stay out of other hunters personal belongings.  
3.) The upper floors are off-limits to rookies, anyone caught there without reason shall face severe punishment."

"Sooo," Zero asked quietly as he turned to the commander "What are this year's rookies like?"  
"Can't complain Zero, they're a step up from what we get every other year."  
The rookies faces lit up as the legendary maverick hunter X walked over to them and began to converse with a few of the new rookies, they were excitedly asking questions of X and all the things he had done.  
The commander turned from Zero and yelled, "Okay rookies, that's enough for one day. You are excused. Feel free to wander around hunter HQ or retire to your rooms, the top floors are off limits to rookies though."

Lixi followed the crowd out the door. She had been one of the ones that X had talked to. He seemed nice, asked her about her home and such. As the crowd dispersed, she wondered what to do. Most people were going out side for some fresh air, but a few people were looking around the base. She walked around, saying hello to some people. She explored most of the levels they were allowed to, just generally taking in the bustling atmosphere.

Jet stops to talk with Zero and thanks him for the recomendation to join the maverick hunters. He asks what the had planned for the rookies next, but Zero reveals nothing.  
"That's Zero for you. Fine keep your secrets," mutters Jet. "Hey Zero, where's Tank at? I haven't seen him in forever!"  
"You can check the computer database over there," Zero points, "Its got info on all of our hunters."  
Jet looks up Tank and sees that he is away on a mission.  
Jet shrugs, "_I'll just take a walk and meet some of the other rookies_."

Lixi frowned. She had seen a strange repliod walking towards the HQ. She watched him for a bit. Anyone who wasnt supposed to go in there wouldn't just walk through the front door in broad daylight, so she ignored him.  
"_Geez am I bored," _she thought to herself.  
Then she saw another reploid talking with Zero. She recognised him as a rookie! But then, he walked passed her and disappeared into the crowd.  
_"Ack!"_ She thought, _"Lost him..." _Sighing, she made her way to the armoury. "_Hope they won't mind me borrowing a bow and some arrows. I think I might go train a bit... I'll find a friend later."_

Jet walks around the base. He sees a weapons room and recharges all ammo.  
"_I should probably get ready for my first assignment_," Jet thought spying a training room. "_I don't know what it will be about but some training couldn't hurt_."

When Reaver finally makes it to the entrance, a guard stops him asking why he is here. After explaining his current situation, the guard lets him pass but warns him to report to the head of HQ immedeatly. So Reaver heads to the command center and requests for permission to stay in the HQ. After a long discussion he finally gets what he wants, he is allowed to join the hunters.  
"You couldn't have come at a better time, we just got some new rookies at the base so one more wouldn't be much of a problem. We just consider you to be one of the new ones and everything will be ok." The person smiles, gives a friendly handshake and Reaver leaves the command center. Satisfied, he heads to the armory in hopes to get a decent weapon...

(That night)

Sirens blared and in the dead of night, silence was suddenly lifted,  
"Code Red," the alarm screamed, "Maverick attack, all hunters prepare for combat!"  
Outside the hunter base well over a hundred mavericks were attacking, leading the front were the older mavericks who had been resurrected and compared to the new reploids were weak and outdated. As the Hunters scrambled to mount the counter attack mavericks infiltrated the HQ, the sky was light up as the mavericks open fired upon the base despite their comrades entry into the hunter HQ.  
Signas, through the comm system was heard yelling, "Hunters defeat the mavericks!"

As night fell Jet was in the simulation room laying waste to all the attacking enemies. The battles were incredibly lifelike, the robot simulations are patterned after real mavericks the hunters had faced before. After effortlessly destroying wave after wave of foot soldiers, Jet decides to jack up the difficulty. Upon re-entering the room he finds the grunts have now been replaced with Vile clones. After getting his butt kicked, Jet decides not to be so cocky and increases the difficulty a bit slower. After the next round Jet sees that the next battle will be with another rookie. As his opponent walks through the door the room shakes. Jet startes to marvel once again at how realistic the battle simulations are when the speaker blares out, "Maverick attack, all hunters prepare for combat!" Jet looks at his opponent and suggests they postpone their match and go take on some real mavericks. After leaping through a window, they see that the building truly was surrounded. Though it was reckless and stupid they decide to charge and break enemy lines. Jet fires his jet boots and dodges enemy fire. He ignites an odd lance that he "borrowed" from the armory earlier and begins swooping down on the troops, slashing and hacking with grim accuracy.  
"_Wow my first maverick_," thinks Jet, "_This is just like the simulation! I wish Tank were here to see this_!"  
The other rookie wasn't doing too bad either. She was currently surrounded by a group of soldiers but Jet felt comfident that she could take care of themself. Even so, Jet decided that it couldn't hurt to help and headed over. Suddenly a beam of ice knocked Jet out of the air. Unfortunately ice happened to be Jet's weakest element, (though he had a body chip which makes him more resistant with every shot he survives.) Jet sits up to see the maverick general of all the troops he had just destroyed. Jet couldn't care less. He stands up, puts on a cocky grin and charges the Elemental Cannon.  
"Don't make me use my scorcher you scum..."

Lixi wondered how she would get out of this one. She was surrounded by mavericks. One jumped at her and she whacked it away. She heared a shot and whirled around. The other rookie had been hit by a blue beam. But he started moving, so she guessed he was okay. She had to worry about herself... suddenly she had an idea. She jumped and did a backflip, and landed on the shoulders of a maverick.  
"Eh!" It had time to say before she jumped again and fired an arrow mid air, hitting it square between the eyes.  
_"Lucky I did some training for a bit..."_ She landed and started to run back towards the base, looking for a good spot to snipe from."

Reaver ran through the hallways, with his newly acquired scythe on his back. The alarms were still going off.  
"_Crap, it must really be bad_," he thinks. He heads off towards the entrance of the base, where some mavericks already seemed to have entered, others were already at the scene, trying to hold of the invading mavericks.  
"_Hehehe, payback time_," he thinks infuriated. He turns on the scythe, a bloodred laserblade lights up, and a smaller sharp laser lights up from the rear end. Filled with hatred and bloodlust, he dashes off into the mavericks, while emiting a loud battlecry. He thinks to himself, "_I will not make the same mistake twice_!"

Jet lets loose a blast of fire. Jet had never used the flame scorcher before and though it torched the maverick general beyond recognition and incinerated his remaining troops it took up far too much energy.  
"_Auto repair will kick in after awhile_," he thinks "_I can't do anything reckless until then_." Jet decides to head back to the building where he would only have to defend from 3 sides. As he staggers over he notices the other rookie, and that with her bow, she is more of a ranged fighter.  
"_I can't do any more alone in this state_," he thinks. Jet shouts to the female rookie, "There will be time for introductions later. For now I'm going to guard the back door. Want to stand behind me and snipe?"

Lixi was annoyed. There wasn't one good sniper spot from where she could see.  
"There will be time for introductions later. For now I'm going to guard the back door. Want to stand behind me and snipe?" She turned. It was the other rookie from before!  
"Sure," she answered. "Lead the way!" They made their way back towards the building, Lixi sniped out most mavericks before they could even get close to them. Jet couldn't help but admire her skill with the bow. Finally they were at the building!

After reaching the building Jet hurried to the doorway. As mavericks tried to get inside Jet slashed, hacked and kicked away everything that got close enough. Every now and then the other rookie hunter would hold her bow over Jet's sholder and fire. They were doing very well but the mavericks just couldn't take a hint that they weren't getting in the back door. They kept coming...

Enraged, Reaver hacked through the platoon at the entrance. Slashing through the hordes of cannon fodder with his weapon, he took heavy damage, but it didn't seem to hold him back, the fire support from behind really had to watch where they were firing to avoid shooting Reaver. Emiting loud battle cries, some hunters were getting worried Reaver wouldn't turn maverick...

Reaver, still fighting the group, gets heavily damaged, but continues in his rage. But due this enraged state, he doesn't observe the other, stronger mavericks of the platoon. One of the mavericks charged his fist, hitting Reaver full frontal in the face. Reaver steps backward, dizzy from the blow. The maverick continues his blows, and eventually uses a high kick to drop him on the ground. The maverick chuckles, grabs him at his neck, and holds him high above the group.  
"Idiot..." the maverick says to him, and throws him through the hallway, slamming him into the wall behind the firesupport group.

Lixi was slowly getting more and more annoyed._  
"Is this what battles are like? Geez they're repetitive!"_ she thought as she fired another arrow. It hit a maverick in the chest, and it fell over. She reached for another arrow... and didn't find one.  
"Uh-oh," She said.  
"What!" yells Jet.  
"I ran outta arrows..." She kicked away a maverick. "I'm trying to think! Ah. No other choice, I have to go to the armory. Wanna come with?"

Reaver lay in the rubble of the wall.  
"Ugh, god... my hole body hurts... shouldn't be so reckless next time..." he thinks. While lying there, he has time to calm down, coming back to his senses, he realizes his entire body is heavily damaged, one of his feet is paralyzed, and blood drips from his head. His scythe lies next to him, he turns it of and uses it to get up. But without him, the support unit has no frontal defenses and the maverick which utterly defeated Reaver, now turns on the support group, soon to be swarmed by the platoon of mavericks... Reaver looks around, looking for a way to help out, considering he can't fight anymore... A headset falls in front of him, probally from the commander of the fire support team. He picks it up, and immedeatly tries to contact the HQ. Not waiting for a reply, he yells as soon as he has contact: "THE FRONT HAS BEEN BREACHED! SEND REINFORCEMENTS AS SOON AS YOU CAN!" Reaver hangs up, moments later, a voice can be heard over the intercom, asking for forces to move to the entrance...

After the other hunter runs out of ammo Jet faces a dilema. Does he protect her as she makes her way to the armory or stay by the back door to make sure mavericks do breach the building. Then he hears the intercom announcement, "THE FRONT HAS BEEN BREACHED! SEND REINFORCEMENTS AS SOON AS YOU CAN!" Jet swears under his breath and slams the ground creating a shockwave causing the wall in front of the door to collapse.  
"It'll take them awhile to get through that," Jet tells his partner, "Lets hurry to the armory and get you more ammo, then we've got to back up the front enterance!"

Lixi was shifting through all the arrows and bows in the armoury. Jet had given her great cover on the way to the armory. Every maverick they met along the way was quickly hacked into a heap of parts.  
"You done yet!" he yelled from the door.  
"Hold your horsies! I'm looking for a better bow! The one I have now is only a practice bow..."  
"A new bo- Oh come on! The one you have now is fine! We have to hurry!"  
_"Ah-hah! I knew they had a good bow around here somewhere!"_ Lixi thought grabbing a different bow from near the back, and the bunch of arrows next to it. This quiver had more arrows then the last one so she only grabbed the new one.  
"Done!" She said running out.  
"Good. Now we have to go help the others."  
"Right!" She answered. "Lets go!"

Reaver found refugee behind two hallway turrets, where he kicked over a table and hid behind it while shooting with a rifle he conveniently got from a dead guy. He positioned the blade of the scythe so it functioned as a small triplaser if the mavericks would get too close to him. But he knew that he wouldn't last long in his state...  
"_Where the hell are those reinforcements_?" he thought impatiently.

As if to answer his question the hall was flooded with a torent of water. The inundation effectively destroys several mavericks and sweeps the remainder out the door. Jet looks at the other hunters, "This time we hold them. We stop them here!"

**(Zero's theme metalized)**  
A thunderous crack resounded in the area, the battle stopped and all eyes turned toward the maverick hunter base. The doors exploded off the hinges with the force that crushed a maverick like a tin can. As the smoke cleared, X and Zero and a host of elite hunters stood, all with weapons armed. The mavericks fought on but with these new reinforcements, their end was swift and brutal. All the rookies watched in awe as X, Zero and the elite hunters slaughtered the mavericks.

As the mavericks were destroyed, the hunters gaped in awe at the blue blood which covered the ground where the mavericks fell. The hunters carefully collected this strange substance to be analyzed.

X called everyone to the command room, standing before the crowd, he began, "Well, it looks like we fended off the attack but the base sustained heavy internal damage, so for now we'll be moving to the _Infinity_ space station. So for now pack up your stuff and the hypershutle will deliver you to the station." After X finished, the hunters gabbed their things and boarded the ship, within the hour they were standing in the space station _Infinity_.  
Over the comm they heard, "Welcome hunters, please make yourselves at home in our advanced facilities, our training room is open and the stores have supplies for you, the rooms will be assigned shortly, but if you need a nap the lounge has some couches for sleep. Please enjoy your stay."

END OF CHAPTER 1


	2. Chapter 2

X called everyone to the command room, standing before the crowd, he began, "Well, it looks like we fended off the attack but the base sustained heavy internal damage, so for now we'll be moving to the _Infinity_ space station. So for now pack up your stuff and the hypershutle will deliver you to the station." After X finished, the hunters gabbed their things and boarded the ship, within the hour they were standing in the super station _Infinity_.  
Over the comm they heard, "Welcome hunters, please make yourselves at home in our advanced facilities, our training room is open and the stores have supplies for you, the rooms will be assigned shortly, but if you need a nap the lounge has some couches for sleep. Please enjoy your stay."

Reaver looked around, looking for the other reploids who came to his aid earlier back on earth, but didn't see them anywhere. "Bah, I'll thank them later." Leaning heavily on the scythe, as they didn't gave him the change to search for medical attention yet, he sets of in search for a sickbay...

Jet breathes a sigh of relief as he thinks once more about the previous battle. Jet and his companion had cleared out the enterance breifly but the new mavericks were swarming in, with only a handfull of hunters, including one who had been lying on the floor gravely injured. It would have been hard to fight off that onslaught while protecting him at the same time.  
"_I'm just glad X and Zero arrived when they did_," Jet thinks. He woundered where that hunter was now, and where the female hunter who had helped him outside was.  
Jet sets off to find the training room of this new facility. "_The scorcher is insanely powerful_," thinks Jet, "_but I'm not strong enough to use it. If I want to become more than a hinderance to the hunters, I need to train harder_."

"There you go! Just keep the bandage clean and it'll be good as new very soon!" the Nurse said.  
"Thanks!" Lixi replied as she walked out the door, holding her bandaged arm. She had a nasty cut down the side of her upper arm and hadn't realized until she felt the blood leaking down her arm. But, it was all bandaged now and she was feeling good. She wondered what the time was. The battle had seemed to go on forever, yet only a few minutes at the same time. She looked around the station, trying to find the rookie hunter that had helped her, but couldn't see him anywhere.  
"_Oh well. Guess introductions are going to be put off for even longer,"_ she though to herself._ "I wonder what's going to happen to us now?"_

"There, that should do it, judging from your wounds, you have been quite reckless down there on earth. Just take it easy, you won't be the first rookie who gets destroyed because of overestimating himself..." the medic said. Feeling insulted by his words, Reaver left the sickbay without saying a word. He seemed to be completely recovered, those doctors really seemed to know what they were doing. Standing on the hallway, he isn't really certain where to go... He didn't really felt much for training, and he disliked large spaces like cafeteria's for reasons unknown, he decided to look for a library or a database of enemy's he would be allowed to access, as he still had much to learn about the world he lived in... considering it was only a few days ago he was awakened, with little to no knowledge programmed into him... But Reaver was unable a library.  
"_No one ever values knowledge anymore_..." he grumbled. Feeling a bit angered about this, he headed to the training room to let go some aggression.

After a day passes, the hunters are all settled in, injuries are taken care of and everyone has their rooms. Over the intercom they hear, "Commander X requests the following hunters to report to the mission briefing room," the speaker reels of a list of names including Jet's, Lixi's and Reaver's. Within 5 minutes the hunters are standing in the room,  
"Congratulations rookies on your first battle, no doubt many of you will do very well here, we had few casualties and not much damage was done to the surrounding areas, though Hunter HQ was fairly damaged," said X, standing in front of the mission briefing computer. "Now as it comes to my attention there are 2 missions which require your attention." X as he turned to the mission computer behind him and it flickered it on, displaying a write up of the missions and a graphical representation of the terrains of the area.  
"There are 2 missions which require attention, please select which you want to take care of first."

On the screen the following is displayed  
Mission - Investigate a mysterious signal in the Amazon jungle.  
Briefing- A mysterious signal has been spoted eminating from the jungle, we suspect a rise in maverick activity, investigate and report findings.

Mission - Persue the maverick in New York city.  
Briefing- In downtown new york a maverick general is leading a large band of minions though the streets tearing everything apart. Put a stop to the destruction before more people get hurt.

--------------------  
Please choose which mission you want to go on.  
--------------------

Jet thinks it over in his mind carefully. He is excited about his first real mission, and the unexpected choice Most missions were assigned not chosen. He wondered what the other reploids would choose, especially the 2 he had fought alongside at the hunter base. He looked at the screens again, one showing a lush quiet jungle, the other was New York on fire. Jet clenched his fists, the choice was no choice at all.  
Jet speaks up "I'll take the New York mission X." He runs to his room quickly to grab up a few items. As he runs, Jet reflects and decides that he had made the right decision.  
"_Those people need help right now_," Jet thinks. "_I can let some other hunters run recon in the jungle, if they find anything I can head over but I think this mission is more serious right now_." Jet returns to the command room and jumps in the teleporter.

X spoke to each of the groups by comm as they were transfered to their missions  
"Ok, you are to act as a group, support each other by now you should be familiar with each others strengths and weaknesses. Cover for each other and the mission will succeed."   
Then to the jungle group:  
"Because you are in the jungle you'll have more cover from any enemies that may appear, use the trees and objects there for cover, try and stay out of sight as best you can, the signal is about a mile from your location. I'm sorry we couldn't warp you closer but there was a teleportation jamming field set up, X out."  
To the New York group  
"You are in an urban environment, try to avoid damage to the surrounding buildings, the more damage you do the more we have to cover, and our money supply is limited in lieu of the last weeks events. But as for the mission, the maverick general should be close by, confront and capture if possible, the smaller mavericks are also large in number so be careful. X out."

Jet is transported to the city.  
"_This is horrible_," he thinks surveying the distruction and carnage. All the buildings in view were on fire.

Reaver looked around, amazed by all the mayhem and burning rubble. He didn't really fell horrible about the whole thing. In fact, he found it quite interesting. But when he thought about the Mavericks, the anger within him began to build up again.  
"_Easy now, we don't want to get heavily injured twice in a row now do we_?" he thought to himself. He looked around the group, seeing a familiar face...

**(Theme of Zero Z1)**  
Jet sees Reaver teleport in nearby and walks up to him.  
"You were that reploid from the HQ. I don't think I ever told you at the time, my name's Jet." The two look at the destruction of the once proud city.  
"Its terrible isn't it. Payback is going to be very painful for that maverick scum."

Lixi loved to snipe, and the trees provided excellent cover, but there wasn't a maverick in sight! She thought that maybe she was too impatient for these types of mission, and decided not to go on any like this in the future. Finally the group found a place that looked safe to rest at, everyone was weary after their long trek through the jungle. It was very quiet... which was strange for a jungle.  
"This is going nowhere!" a hunter complained. Some others nodded while others muttered things about 'impatient bots'. Lixi silently agreed that it being boring.   
"Fine. How 'bout we split up? We'll cover more ground and get this done quiker that way," she suggested. She joined with two other hunters who introduced themselves as Zo and Ace. Once more, they set out to find the source and purpose of the mysterious signal.

Reaver gritted his teeth, every time he thought of mavericks he was angered. Eventually, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.  
"Let's go Jet," he tells his fellow hunter as he activates his weapon. "Oh by the way, my name's Reaver..." He moves swiftly from building to building with Jet at his side.

As medical reploids rush to the scene and carry humans from the burning buildings, Jet and Reaver continue on. Jet would have liked to help the humans but he reminded himself that he was on a mission to make sure more humans didn't end up hurt, and that those duties were better left to medical repliods. With every building burning, it was impossible to tell which area of the city the mavericks were currently at.  
"I'll be back in a minute," mutters Jet, "I'm going to take a look around." With that he activates his boots and takes off into the blood red sky.

"_Hey, he can fly? Facinating..._"Reaver thinks while watching his flight from afar. He looks down to the street again, and noticices a small group of mavericks moving down the street. He looks up hoping to alert Jet, but he's too far to alert him without giving away his location to the Mavericks. He is about to wait when he sees a small group of humans fleeing from them. "_Damn! Can't wait for Jet any longer_," He thinks, "_Hopefully he will notice it as soon as the fighting starts_." He dashes off, off to aid the humans.

"_Damn_," thinks Jet. "_This isn't good, the mavericks aren't in one place, they're scattered all around the city! And I don't see thier leader anywhere._" Jet is about to fly back down but he sees two humans in the window of a burning building. The building is massive and so high up that the medical reploids wouldn't get there in time even if they were on scene. As the flames close in the humans decide to jump. Speeding towards them, Jet manages to catch them just before they hit the ground. Unfortunately, Jet was hit from behind. He had landed at the feet of the maverick general. The humans were frozen with terror and Reaver was blocks away. Gritting his teeth, Jet stagers to his feet.  
"Get behind me," he orders the humans. "This is not going to be fun..."

Reaver watched from behind a wall, judging the small group of mavericks. "_Cannon fodder... Only melee weapons_," he thinks, "_I did it once, I can manage some cannon fodder harvest again_..." He grins and jumps out of the shades, standing in the middle of the road as the civilians run by. Some stop behind Reaver, probally feeling safe to be close to a hunter. The mavericks stop, hestitate for a moment... Reaver raises his weapon and dashes into the group, his hate for mavericks making him forget his earlier decision to gun them down at long range. But still he tries to supress his fury, as he fears he won't be so lucky next time when he will be heavily injured...

"_How am I going to beat this general by myself_?" Jet thinks "_The one at hunter base was easy, he'd been killed before and was just recycled parts. No rookie is going to beat this without an edge of some kind_." The maverick general raises his weapon and readies himself for an attack. Before he can, Jet reaches behind him, grabs the humans and flys away. The mavericks all fire and one of the humans goes limp. Jet flys in the direction he had seen the medical reploids. When they land the humans are immediately taken away for injuries. Jet turns away, tears burning in his eyes. The human that had been hit had no pulse. A sobbing Jet knew that he had failed them...

Reaver makes quick work of the little mavericks, impaling the last one. He chuckles, as he stands there, holding high in the air one of his opponents.  
The maverick, while coughing and hacking, whispers its last words, "You, you, traitor!" Reaver slams his head in the ground. "Hypocrite," he replies to the lifeless body. He turns his head towards the civilians. He enjoyed the spectators, but he knew they really needed to get out of there. But as he walks back towards them, a nearby building the civilians explodes, flinging sharp or heavy objects towards the group. Reaver is shocked. His eyes are wide as he witnesses the group of humans get brutally mutilitated. A little boy holding a teddy bear also gets hit, the bear gently drops on the ground. Reaver, almost nervewrecked, slowly walks towards the pile of flesh.  
Dropping to his knees he lowers his head and cries out loadly, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  
Some mavericks walk out of the smoke of the ruined building, "Hehe oops... man that was explosive..." One of them jokes. "Hey look! A hunter! HAHAHA WHAT A CRYBABY!" Reaver can't take it anymore, the fury takes over again, he sees his scientist getting splattered all over the wall again. He lets out a loud battle cry, dashing off towards the mavericks, filled with hatred and bloodlust and fury again, even though it was easy to see these mavericks were far stronger than the last group...

Jet struggles to get ahold of himself.  
"_There will be time for this later_," he tells himself, "_For now you have to make sure you don't fail anybody else. They're all depending on you. Now get up. Its time to regroup with Reaver and end this fight_."  
Suddenly he hears a loud cry from several streets over. A long series of terrified screams followed by a long wailing "NOOOOOOOOO!" Jet flys over the buildings to see Reaver, completely enraged fighting a large group of mavericks. Jet flys over firing blasts from the elemental cannon. 2 mavericks down. Igniting the strange lance from the hunter HQ he swoops down and impales 3 mavericks.  
Leaving the spear inside the mavericks, he lands next to Reaver and pulls out his twin swords. "Sorry, I wasn't back in exactly a minute, I ran into some people. Their general is on the other side of this residential district. Lets take care of the rest of these guys here and go clean up this mess."

A large explosion rocks the city, and another building begins to collapse. The maverick general is on a rampage. Another explosion is heard by the hunters and it is much closer. The ground explodes under their feet and the maverick pops up. He growled and observed the hunters, clearly enjoying the fight.

Reaver, calmed again when the Jet arrives at the scene, observes the newly arrived maverick. Apparently using explosives for weapons, thus extreme heat... Reaver's weakness. Then he looks at the group mavericks he was fighting with Jet, every single one of them still ready for battle, provoking the hunters to attack. Impossible odds for two rookie hunters...  
Reaver whispers to Jet, "I think we are going to need some help..."

"There is no other help, I think we're the only hunters in the city," Jet exclaimed. Jet eyes the maverick general's arms, one had a drill on the end. "_So he's been tunneling under the city this whole time planting bombs and knocking down buildings_," Jet thinks, "_No wonder I douldn't see him from the air, he was underground_." Fortunately, the maverick general was confident that he could defeat the two rookie hunters. He growled at his troops who left to cause more destruction and death. "_This overconfidence will be his end_," Jet thought. He shouted at the maverick, "I owe you one for the humans you've murdered. I'll stop you if it costs me my life!"

"Who's brilliant idea was it to send only a couple of offensive hunters into a warzone anyway...?" he grumbles, "After this is over, if we live I'm going to complain personally!" Focusing on the Maverick again, he tries to look for a weakspot... There appears to be none, his armor is flawless and incredibly thick. He decides to play defensively and let the general make the first move.

Speaking quietly into his communicator Jet requests help from any who might be listening. All he hears is static.  
"Enough talk," growls the maverick as he hurled a bomb, "Now you die!" Jet quickly grabs the lance from where it was still imbedded in the destroyed mavericks and hits the bomb back into the maverick general. Chunks of its armor are blown off revealing the machinery within. Enraged and still operational the maverick lunges at Jet and grabs him by the throat and starts crushing it.

Meanwhile Lixi continued her hike through the jungle. It was so frusterating that the Hunter HQ couldn't pinpoint the source of the maverick signal. The endless walking was so boring.  
For the millionth time she asks herself, "_Why the heck did I choose this mission_?"

Jet could feel his systems shutting down.  
"_So this is how it ends_," he thinks. Suddenly a hailstorm of buster shots came out of nowhere hitting the maverick in the back and causing him to drop Jet. Using the last of his strength, Jet heaved the lance into the hole made by the bomb. Sparks flew, the general cried out in pain. The last thing Jet saw before losing conscience was a figure behind the maverick general. "I know that armor, that looks like..."

Reaver stood paralyzed, watching the battle. Even when Jet got grabbed by his throat, he could only watch. Watching Jet die before his eyes was one death too many, his systems simply froze up. Then suddenly the shots came raining down on the maverick.  
This sudden attack brought him back to his senses, "_WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING_?" he thought. Without further hestitation, he finished the job, slashing the stunned maverick through his head. He looks at Jet, and sees that he will probably be ok.  
Reaver turns to the figure behind the dead maverick, "Who are you?"

The figure was silent as he approached Jet and examined him. "He'll be alright..." he muttered then turned to Reaver, "You there, get him back to the hunter base, your mission is over. If there are other mavericks around my gang will take care of them." With that he turned and walked away.

As the final sparks flew from the dead maverick general's body each active hunter heard a beep in their helmit and an automated voice stated "You got explosion crash!" Data was entered into each hunters armor and the knowledge of how to use the weapon was set, and the armor configured for use, the new weapon could be called upon at any time.  
------------------------------------------------  
Explosion Crash- powerful but slow attack, uses more energy to do more damage.  
Uncharged- fires a wave of combustible energy  
Charged- massive energy is discharged off the user devastating an area approx 15-20 feet around user.  
------------------------------------------------

Over the comm came the voice of X. "Sorry new hunters, I forgot to tell you of one of your armors new abilities. Whenever you defeat a maverick the armor will automatically their weapon or power and spread it to every active hunter so no matter where you are if the others defeat a maverick general, you'll get the power they get too."

As the hunters finished mopping up the little mavericks in the city, they noticed more of the strange blue blood. Over the comm X intructed them to collect it, "Be sure to get a sample and bring it back to base, they are still analyzing the first sample but we could use another sample to compare it to."

Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, the group was proceeding slowly when a small quake rocked the ground. The rock that Lixi and the others had been standing on crumbled away and they fell into a nightmare. It was a maverick ambush and they were going to die.

END OF CHAPTER 2


	3. Chapter 3

Lixi was shocked, "_I didn't mean it about the whole boredom thing_," she thinks, "_Please I wish we could go back to the boring jungle trek. I don't like the way this looks_."  
"What the, how did...?" Zo complained as he saw them coming with full speed.  
"No time for that. Defend yourself!"Ace cried.  
Lixi drew her bow and prepared for the end.

When Jet awoke he was in the medical center of the maverick hunter base.  
"How did I get here?" he wonders aloud.  
Jet recognizes Reaver's voice behind him, "We were teleported back after we beat that huge maverick. We got this cool new attack too for our armor. If you're feeling better X says we're supposed to go help out the crew in the Amazon, seems we got done before they did."  
"I'm fine," says Jet, "Lets go help them, I hope they're ok."  
As Jet and Reaver jump in the teleporter Reaver turns to Jet and says, "By the way, your friend took off as soon as he saw you were going to be alright."  
Jets eyes widen, "So that really was him... I wasn't halucinating." Suddenly they find themselves in the middle of the jungle. And a war zone...

Lixi, Ace, and Zo were slowly being overrun by mavericks, when another of the hunter groups they had started with stumbled upon the battle and helped out. The other three weren't too special, two were taken out almost immediatly. The fight looked like a hopeless for the hunters until Lixi heard something speaking in her helmet... Some thing about 'Explosion Crash' Then Ace suddenly unleash an awesome attack, not even knowing how.  
"_Cool_," Lixi thought. The other hunters were in awe too.  
"According to the comm, we can all use it too." Zo said. The hunters smiled at each other and prepared to use their new move...

**(Storm Eagle Stage)**  
Once in the jungle, Reaver looked around. They teleported near a group of hunters under heavy fire. Noticing this, he points them out to Jet and heads over to help.

It was the female repliod who had helped him at the hunter base! She and three hunters that Jet didn't know were under heavy fire from a horde of mavericks. Jet sees one of them use the new explosion move.  
"So not fair," he mutters, "I almost gave my life getting that move and they get it for free." Jet leaps in front of the charging mavericks and hits the ground with his hyper shock attack, which had become even more powerful with this explosive upgrade. The mavericks that were in its range wouldn't be causing trouble for a long, long time.  
Turning to the hunters behind him, "Hey guys, long time no see! The name's Jet, lets finish this fight." And the mavericks rushed on.

Reaver was about to jump into the pit with Jet to assist the other hunters when suddenly a maverick jumped out of a tree, landing silently on the ground. He provoked Reaver to attack... the maverick was skinny in appereance, wielding a scythe and wearing a black armor, just like Reaver. The maverick flees a short distance and stops, again taunting Reaver. Reaver forgot about his friends in the pit and ran off to dual the maverick.

**(Max Heat)**  
As the new renforcement Jet arrived to help the group, the others only focused on defending themselves.  
"Woah!" cried Zo as he just dodged a flying attack from two robot birds, "Dammit will they ever quit!"  
"Just keep destroying them!" Ace yelled as he continued slashing through enemies. One of the mavericks heaved a well placed grenade into the group. Lixi got the worst of it, she went down and stayed down.  
"NOO!" Jet screamed. "This has to end."

Jet blasts into the air and rains fire and ice down on the mavericks with his cannon.  
_"Where are they coming from? Is their base nearby?" _he wonders.  
"Use the trees for cover if you need to," Jet yells to the others, "I'm going to try and circle around them and we'll take them from 2 sides. And don't any of you think of dying on me!"

Reaver persued the maverick into an open field, with one big tree in the middle. Reaver stops for a moment, looking around hastily fearing he lost the maverick.  
"I can't believe this!" a voice yelled from the tree. Reaver looked up, seeing the maverick looking down to him.  
"Just shut up, and finish this!" He replied.  
"You're siding with the hunters eh? Traitor!"  
"YOU are the traitor! YOU side with the human slayers! YOU KILLED MY MAKERS!" Furiously, Reaver slashes down the tree in one fell swoop, the maverick easily jumps out and lands behind Reaver, but the tree falls with a deavening loud drop.   
"Your makers?" The maverick continued... "You sure you remember the story well?"  
"What are you hinting at, lowlife maverick?" For a short while, neither says something. Then the maverick reaches for a chip and drops it in front of Reaver.   
"Use it with your weapon, it's an ice chip!" Reaver picks up the chip, suspicious, he asks "Why are you giving your enemy a chip? I don't trust you..."  
"You may have betrayed your own kind, but I would never betray my own friend Reaver..." Suddenly, the maverick teleports away.  
"... _Friend_?" Reaver wondered... He puts the chip in his weapon, immedeatly, the blade becomes a sharp, ice cold, frost-blade. A bit suprised, he remembers the other hunters heads back to the battlefield.

From the air it becomes easy to see that the mavericks are filing out of an underground base. "Its underground!" Jet yells to the others, "That's why the base couldn't lock onto it, the signal must be in there. we can't damage it from here, we've gotta drive the mavericks back into the hidden base. Maybe if we all used the explosion crash at once we could push the mavericks back and get inside..." They all combined their explosion crash creating a wave large enough to destroy the mavericks in view.  
"Lets get into the base and shut their signal down before more mavericks show up," Jet yelled.

The crash roared through the jungle and the mavericks outside were vaporised by the massive wave of energy, even the hole in the ground was opened wider revealing steps leading down into a tunnel. Into the tunnel they went and waiting for the hunters was a maverick general.

**(Past of Zero x4)**  
Ace, who was pretty fast, dashed down the steps to see the maverick general, "Great, one more left. I guess that maverick's protecting the signal." He rushed forward and did a three-slash combo on the general, then leapt back and fired an explosion crash at it. He landed and prepared for the next attack, if there was one.

Jet was right behind Ace. Suddenly Jet's lance glowed blue. Without hesitation he hurled it into the maverick general's chest. It went deep and sparks flew. The maverick general was clearly damaged, but how badly? He studied the maverick wondering what kind of attacks it would have.

Reaver and the other hunters head into the hole, seeing the others already fighting another general. Reaver lights his scythe, revealing the new ice cold blade. They dash to the aid of their fellow hunters.

The lithe figure moved into the lighted section of the tunnel. She gave a little bow and stood up, and in a very dignified voice stated "My name is Solarion Vineyard, prepare to die." As she said this her arms and leg sections uncoiled and lengthened her 5'4" frame into a towering 10 feet. Once stretched to her full extent she launched across the tunnel towards the maverick hunters.

Another rookie hunter, Giga enters the tunnel.  
"Well, time to trim the bushes" he said with a smirk. "Let's go guys!" He yelled and rushed the maverick with his saber.

Jet barely notices as another hunter, he's too busy staring at the general as she grows to roughly twice his size.  
"_Oh thats not good_," he thinks. As the sunlight hits her, the wound where the lance struck closed, sealing the lance inside. The wound was perfecly healed. "Oh that is really not good," he mutters out loud.  
"That's not the half of it," says a voice inside his helmet. Do you even know what that lance is? How much power it contains? Her body is having a reaction with it and you guys are in for some trouble."  
"Who are you?" asks Jet. There is no answer. Suddenly the huge maverick grabs Jet with one of the vines. Jets arms are pinned, he cannot reach for his swords. "_She's too big_," he thinks, "_Can't break free_..."

"I'll help you out," cries Giga. Snap! A vine grabs him as well and the huge maverick begins to squeeze...

Suddenly Reaver's scythe is seen thrown through the air, slashing trough the vine which holds Giga. The vine falls at the ground, freeing Giga. The scythe gets imbedded in the wall. Reaver remains behind the group, remaining silent, yet confident...

"Nice one Reaver!" Giga said commenting in amazement about the throw.  
The maverick let out a shriek, " You will pay for that!" as her vine-arm slowy grew back.  
"Jet, you okay?" Ludakris yelled watching helplessly as Jet continued being crushed, but was interrupted when the plant maverick smashed her vine like hand on him. He flew into a wall and slid down it, landing in a heap on the floor.  
"Damn" he mumbled. "Forget this..."

Jet is dazed but the huge maverick's screaming brings him to his senses. He activates his jet boots and the flame causes the huge maverick to lose her hold on him. Jet leaps into the air and delivers a kick to the mavericks face. As he kicks he ignites his jet boots again and the flames cause the maverick even more pain. Jet backflipped away and landed on the ground. He noticed the maverick was reacting to the flames, just like a real plant the fire caused her to wither and shrink. She was still far larger than the hunters, but not as big as she had been. Getting to his feet again he powered up the elemental cannon and let loose a blast of the scorcher.

The other hunters also noticed this.  
"_Solar power_..." Ace thought, "_That's it_!" He looked up at the hole, "If we take out her source of power, she'll be weakened with every shot." He fires an explosion crash at the hole, causing it to collapse. There was no sunlight now for Solaris to recharge from.

With the sunlight gone and the scorcher causeing her to lose power and shrink, eventually the lance head pokes out causing her massive damage. Jet finally takes out his twin sabers and drives them into her heart.

Reaver started heading over to the wall to retrieve his scythe. But he failed to notice a vine, which was closing in at high speed, slamming Reaver a few meters back into the wall.  
"Ugh, I'm out for a bit" Reaver mutters...

"She's still alive after all that!" Jet exclaims. He pours on more of the scorcher and when she's small enough, crushes her under the heel of his boot. He activates the jets at the end, just for good measure.  
"Ah maverick eliminated," he sighs and collapses onto the ground, is internal circuts failing.

Across the jungle the various hunters recieved the notice: "Weapon obtained! You got solar lash!"  
---------------------------------------------------------  
solar lash- a long vine of glowing solar energy used as a whip, when charged fires a bolt of solar energy ensnaring an enemy, slowly crushing them

secondary effect-  
while equipped with this weapon, standing in the sunlight will slowly recharge your weapons but not energy however  
---------------------------------------------------------

After clearing the rubble away from the tunnel enterance, they turned towards the door at the end of the tunnel that Solarion Vineyard was guarding. With a loud creak the door gave way and split open revealing a transmission base, closer inspection of the terminals revealed the signal was directed to new york but had recently stopped sending... As the hunters investigated the rest of the base, they discovered a vial of the deepest blue, slightly reminiscent of the blue maverick blood being found of late.

Over the comm the hunters heard Zero's voice, "Well done, rookies! You guys could probably use some R&R, I'm sending a shuttle to pick you up, until it arrives guard that area. We can't teleport you from current location, nor can we teleport to that area, so sit tight for now, a new squad is on the way." As Zero finished thes words the comm fizzled out and the hunters were left in the silence of the room. After about 10 minutes a low rumble told them they weren't alone anymore...

END OF CHAPTER 3


	4. Chapter 4

Jet struggled to stay concious. The scorcher took far too much energy to use. But he knew it had been necessary, and that he'd be fine after they returned to base. The others were moving around, investigating the base. He heard Zero on the com, saying to guard the base and to guard the area. "He's not expecting more mavericks is he?" Jet thought. He heard a low rumble in the distance. "Dammit, guess he was. I can't fight like this, my energy is nearly depleated."

Reaver stood up shakily and examined the lab with the other hunters. He heard Zero's message and looked around at the remaining troops. Jet was down. Lixi was still down from the grenade earlier. He and Giga were hurt but not bad. Ace and Zo still seemed ok but Reaver doubted their fighting abilities. Standing up and picking up his weapon, he listened as the rumble got stronger...

As another rumble shakes the foundation, the hunters edge closer to the slightly ajar door. They see a shadow approaching and ready their weapons. Even Jet, lying on the ground has the strength to point his cannon in the direction of the door. The door opens and Axl walks in.  
"Hey guys," he says cheerfully with a huge grin on his face. His eyes widen as he sees the many weapons pointing at him. "You guys don't have to be so serious all the time," he said with a laugh.  
"Axl what are you doing here?" Reaver asks.  
"Zero asked me to come get you guys and let you know the shuttle is ready, you can leave now. My squad will take over," replies Axl.  
Everyone relaxes boards the shuttle back to Infinity.

Within the hour everyone is back at base, X and Zero are no where to be found. Signas is standing at the helm of the group adressing everyone. "Alright hunters," he begins, "Mission complete, base was secured and our team of operatives are investigating the disturbances down there. As some of you already know we have recieved a large shipment of supplies from Hunter HQ, this includes subtanks, some minor weapon upgrades, and a few other interesting trinkets. Hunter HQ has also sent word of new armors for you which will be ready in a few days. They are exactly like the ones you have now except they are more advanced and contain some new abilities which will be explained at a later time. As for now you need some rest relaxation. So go and take some time of for a while, though there is a mission I'll want you to take care of after that. But for now don't worry about it."  
Signas finished his speech and the hunters turned and left the command room, back into the main hall of the space station Infinity.

Reaver wandered around, trying to figure out who that maverick was that he had encountered in the jungle. Why did he call him a friend? It didn't made any sense... Looking down the hallway, he sees the armory and heads over, hoping to find some useful items.

Jet wakes up in the med center back in the hunter base. He sees X himself standing in front of him holding his lance and a scowl in his face.  
"Where did you get this?" X demands.  
"I... I found it in the armory of the hunter base back on Earth. I know I probably should've asked before taking weapons but-"  
X cuts him off. "This happens to be the weapon of a very dangerous maverick. Years ago he almost brought destruction to the world, I lost many good hunters in defeating him. They say half of his power came from this lance, nobody knows what it is capable of. The fact of the matter is its dangerous and I can't let you have it back." X walks out of the room unsatisfied.

"Did he say what he was doing with The Dagmor's lance?" asked Zero.  
"He claims he found it in the base back on Earth." replied X. "That's got to be the worst lie ever, why would Dagmor's lance be in our armory? Especially without our knowledge? I don't trust him."  
Zero frowned, "He's a good kid, I can't see why he'd lie. Do you think there's any chance he was telling you the truth?"  
X laughed at Zero, "How could it have gotten in our armory? It hasn't been seen for years."  
Zero looked troubled. "I don't know but somethings not right about this... I'm going to think long and hard about this one. For the time being, make sure that lance is locked up in our vault."

X walked to the upper levels of hunter headquarters and stopped in front of a large vault with inches of armor plating. "I'm depositing this lance into Vault 017 of classified articles. X authorization."  
"Very good sir," replied the guard. "The scanner is broken so we'll have to enter the record of it tomorrow. But you may deposite it at this time."  
With that the door swung open and X was allowed access to Vault 017.

As Signas finished up, Giga went out with the other rookies. "Dang, Axl scared the bi-jesus outta me!" he said with a grin and went to the armory to suit up and pick up some spare items he may need. "_After I restock, it's the training room for me. Hopefully some of the guys are feelin' up for some training later_." he thought excitedly. " _I'd love to take them on_!" Once there he met Ace and they sparred togather for awhile.

Later that day Jet was released from the med bay. "_I wonder what the deal is with X_?" he wondered, "He seemed really mad at me, and not just for taking a weapon without permission." He shrugged. "Whatever, may as well hit the training room, and some other rookies while I'm at it."

Along the way he ran into Zero. "Nice work on those missions so far, you're doing better than I expected. Listen Jet, I've been wanting to talk to you about what X said the other day, he-"  
"He thinks I'm lying," Jet finished for him.  
"I'm not accusing you or anything but are you sure you found it in our armory back on Earth?" Zero asked.  
"I told X exactly what happened." Jet said.  
Zero looked troubled. "I want to believe you kid. But X does make sense, there is no reason why that lance should have been in our armory. And X is convinced you're working for Dagmor. I told him that's stupid, you're still only a rookie. But until this is settled we're giving you a leave of absense. No missions until then. X and I are leaving on a mission of our own with a group of hunters. We've recieved word that Sigma's back again and needs his skull bashed in. Once that's settled we'll look into your situation more fully but for now just stay here and relax."  
Jet walked off muttering. "Fine! I can see nobody believes me. I'll prove I don't work for Dagmor."

Jet went to the hunter's library and brought up all the information he could find on Dagmor. He was a tall black maverick who was feared by all. He had risen above the rank of maverick general and was one of the few maverick lords. He was known to carry 2 weapons, a scythe and a lance. The computer had a picture on file. Sure enough it was the same one Jet had taken from the hunter's armory. His power was so great, many of his own troops feared him. Years back X and Zero defeated him. But it seemed as though his troops had been reactivated and some hunter's on a reconocance mission had reported glimpsing a "black shadowy figure." "_He's back? How_?" Jet wondered. "_And X doesn't trust me... I have no place in the maverick hunters now, I can't return while everyone suspects me_. _I have to get Dagmor_..."  
With that he uploaded the coordinates of a city called Lancing, which was rumored to be Dagmor's base of operations and headed to the teleporter.

Reaver roamed through the armory, not really sure what to take, until his eyes see two daggers lying around. He activates both, revealing a medium sized blade humming silently, glowing with and eerie red glow, he decides to take them. Suddenly, he hears a voice behind him:   
"Aha! So you took that scythe from the base back on Earth!"  
Reaver turns around, seeing another hunter.  
"Yeah, so?" Reaver asks.  
"That sure is a quality weapon you got there, found it in a base we were send to destroy, probably some new generation weapon or something, only drawback is the fact it cannot be used in conjunction with maverick general weapons, but instead it uses chips, like elemental and extra damaging, etc."  
"A base you were send to destroy? Tell me, where was this base you were talking about?"  
The hunter suddenly slaps his hands in front of his mouth, as if he told something he wasn't allowed to tell.  
"N-n-n-nothing, just forget about it." the reploid looks scared, suddenly leaving the armory. Reaver, now alone, shrugged and left the armory.  
He turned the corner and saw Jet disappear in a flash of white. "There wasn't a mission announced was there?" Reaver wondered confused. Curious, Reaver walked over and examined the teleporter. It was set to a city called Lancing.  
"Follow him," said a voice behind Reaver. Turning around, Reaver saw X standing there, arms folded and a scowl on his face.  
"Wha-," starts Reaver.  
"Follow him," X says again, "And watch him. Tell me what he's up to. But be careful, don't trust him."  
Reaver was shocked but he decided to see what the deal was. He jumped on the telepad and disappeared in a flash.

Late that night at the hunter base, a silent alarm was tripped. It indicated a forced entry in Vault 017 but upon investigation there was no intruder and the records showed nothing was missing. It was a flawless system, everything that had been scanned in was accounted for.

END OF CHAPTER 4


	5. Chapter 5

Jet was transfered to the outskirts of Lancing. He blasted into the sky to get a look around and noticed a strange group a few hundred yards away. As he headed over he recognized a few of them.  
First he noticed Nightshade, who was from the maverick hunters. He seemed to be argueing with a ball black repliod. When he turned around, Jet immediatly recognized him as Xero Bloodline. Even though Xero wasn't a hunter, Jet knew enough about him, he was once known as the "Bloody Nightmare" and in this state he had once destroyed the Maverick Hunter HQ. But he had overcome his past and though he wasn't a hunter, he was more of a friend than an enemy. There were also two other figures that Jet didn't know, but he could see that one of them was a half dragon. Jet assumed them to be Xero's companions.  
As he got closer, he could hear what they were saying. Nightshade was shouting to Xero to wait up.  
Xero turned around. "Now what?"  
"How are you going to find Snakeman in the city?" asked Nightshade.  
Jet flew down, "I'll go with you. I'm looking for someone myself, I can help you."  
They stared at him for a minute. Then Xero sighed, "We've got enough people in this little party, what's one more?" He turned back to Nightshade and answered him, "The city isn't that big and I've got nothing but time on my hands."  
"He ditched his armor though," Nightshade continued. "Finding him is like finding a needle in a haystack."  
Xero was getting impatient. "Well, genius, how would YOU go about finding him?"  
"I'd wait until he makes a move," said Nightshade.  
"Heh, nice try," laughed Xero, "But as I said earlier, I'm impatient." And he started walking again towards the city.  
Nightshade scowled. "...You're so damn moody," he muttered.  
Jet laughed, "Ya I heard he gets that way. Stubborness is a good quality though."  
Xero overheard them and grinned, "Stubborness is a family trait. I can't deny my heritage."  
Jet caught up with Xero, "I'm with you. By the way, if any of you see a big black maverick with horns and a big scythe in 1 arm and a lance in the other let me know. His name is Dagmor and I need him dead."  
Xero laughed at Jet, "Yeah, I'm sure that'll be a hard needle to find..."  
"Fine go ahead and try to find Snakeman," Nightshade said to Xero, "But I swear to God if you harm a single person in there..."  
"Geez Nightshade, you really are more dense than I thought," exclaimed Xero. "I'm not telling you again, I'm not going to hurt anyone, just find and question Snakeman."  
Nightshade scowled, opened a vortex and jumped in.

As the group entered the city the half dragon introduced herself to Jet. Her name was Silver and Xero's other companion was called Majeh. "I wonder where he is," Silver thought out loud. "This is going to be hard..."  
"Agreed," replied Xero. "Everyone split up, we'll cover more ground. But remember, I don't wanna start a fight, I just wanna question him."

Jet wandered through the city looking for Dagmor while also keeping an eye open for Xero's Snakeman, though he wasn't sure what he looked like. Movement on a rooftop caught his eye. Someone was jumping from roof to roof! Jet activates his boots and floats up to him. "So seen a big black maverick? Big scythe, lance? You look like you know this city pretty well." There was no reply. Jet continued, "Normal citizens don't jump around on rooftops. Maybe you can help me find him."  
The figure looked at Jet for awhile "...Who were you looking for?"  
"His name is Dagmor, know anything about him?" Jet asked.  
Xero walks down the streets and notices Jet talking to someone atop a building.  
"...Dagmor?" the figure replies, "Sorry I haven't. Now I have a lot of work to do so if you'll excuse me..." The man jumps into a crowd of people and vanishes.   
Jet jumps after him. Xero notices Jet on the move and follows him on the ground.  
"_Dammit. Why would he run from me? What's he got to hide_?" Jet wondered. Then he saw the man again, he was waving to Jet.  
Jet walks over to the man. "Are you looking for him?" the man asks, pointing to a tall black reploid with a scythe.  
Jet looks at the reploid. "Holy crap that's Reaver! What's he doing here I wonder..."  
As Jet stares, the man silently turns and runs down an alley.  
Xero stops behind Jet. "Where the hell did that guy go?"  
Jet whirls around. "Wha- He was right here!"  
"Who was he?" asks Xero.  
"Some guy I found hopping around on the roofs." Jet told him. "I knew he wasnt a normal citizen so I went to ask if he knew about Dagmor."  
"Dagmor? What about Snake..man...!" Xero exclaims shaking Jet. "Was that him?"  
"Nobody told me what he looked like without his armor, how should I know?" Jet replied. "I guess it could've been him, he ran away so he must have something to hide. Do you think it was Snakeman?"  
"I don't know," answered Xero, "but anyone that hops around on rooftops is worth checking out."  
"He may be in the league with Dagmor...," started Jet. "Or he could be your Snakeman. He's a suspect either way."  
Xero looks around and his eyes rest on a dark alley. "Jet, I'm going down this alley to look, keep your eyes peeled for anything else odd. You keep scouting the city. I'll meet up with you later."  
"Ok," says Jet. "Here's my comm frequency and personal beacon so you can find me if I see that guy again."

Jet heads to a bar. "Looks like a shady place," he thinks. "Maybe I can get some info here on Dagmor."  
Outside he runs into Silver who looked confused. "Hey," he asks, "Are you lost?"  
"Oh its you!" she says recognizing him. "Yes, I am actually."  
"I would've thought you'd just fly up, since you're a half dragon, you can tell where everything is that way." says Jet.  
"I cant fly when I'm in my human form... unfourtunately..." she replied.  
"Can't you change?"  
"My energy was drained... thanks to the blob monster... so I can't."  
"Wow," whistled Jet. "Sounds like a fight."  
"I don't mean to pry but what are you here for?" asked Silver.  
Jet answers her slowly. "X... thinks I'm working for a maverick named Dagmor... I found his lance and he thinks I cant be trusted anymore."  
"Oh... well, thats not good..."  
"No its not," agrees Jet. "So I need to kill him. Or I don't think I can go back to the hunters..."  
Jet begins talking to himself, "And there's a hunter here... a friend I guess. I dont know if he's here to help me... or under X's orders to watch me... Reaver, we will have to see about you..."  
"Well, I wish you luck in regaining trust..." Silver says to Jet.  
"I'm heading into this bar for some info." Jet says to her. "You can come with if you want, or I can direct you to the main plaza."  
"Which way is the main plaza...?" she asks. Jet gives directions and walks alone into the bar.

Jet approaches the bartender and asks for information about Dagmor. The bartender becomes very pale and manages to croak out, "No! I know nothing now please go away."  
Jet sighed and placed a bag of money on the counter. The bartender still looked frightened but he motioned with his eyes to a shadowy figure in the corner of the bar. Jet walked over to him and again requested information on the wherabouts of Dagmor. The figure hesitated, "...What's in it for me if I tell you?"  
"_These rifraff are all the same_," Jet thinks and hands him another bag of money. The figure directs him to a supposably abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town.  
Jet walks in slowly and looks around. There is no sign of any maverick activity... Suddenly the lights go out. Jet is struck in the back of the head and loses consciousness...

Jet wakes up in a cell. One of the guards notices and taps the other. "Look, the prisoner is awake."  
"I can't wait till Master Dagmor returns," says the second guard, "I hear he's going to destroy this hunter personally, he says its been far too long since he's killed anything."  
"That ought to be good entertainment. I can't wait."  
Jet sighed and lay back in his cell. His weapons lay on a table outside, it seemed they were going to return them to him as soon as Dagmor returned from wherever he was and give him a fighting chance.  
Suddenly the guards cried out in pain. Jet looked up to see Reaver destroy one, then the other and proceed to open the cell.  
"Reaver!" yelled Jet, "What the heck are you doing here!"  
"I followed you, X wanted me to see what you were up to. And judging by the way you were all locked up, you're not one of them. Now lets get the heck out of here."  
Jet picked up his gear as Reaver ran for the exit. "Reaver, wait."  
Reaver turned surprised, "What is it? Lets get out of here while we still can."  
"I can't go back yet. I still need to kill Dagmor if I want to rejoin the hunters."  
Reaver was shocked, "Jet, we'll tell X how you got locked up, how you aren't a maverick."  
Jet shook his head. "You helped me, your word isn't going to count for anything either, he'll assume we've both gone maverick. The only way out of this is to kill Dagmor."  
Reaver hesitated for a minute and nodded. "Fine, I can see there is no way I'm going to talk you out of this. I'm coming with you."

**(Neo Arcadia)**  
Jet and Reaver ran down the passageway. Blocking their path was a group of mavericks. Reaver hurled his scythe into the group destroying them and imbedding the scythe in the wall. The tunnel went upwards from there. Another wave of mavericks jumped down and attacked but Jet destroyed them with his cannon. Another removed Reaver's scythe from the wall and charged but Jet dashed forward and destroyed it. Reaver picked up his scythe again and they hopped up the wall. Another group of mavericks awaited them but were again destroyed. The wall turrets were blown up. Jet and Reaver continued on without a problem. They jumped down the other side of the wall, landing on a few mavericks. They finished off the rest with their blasters and dashed through the shutters.

**(Deadzone)** (Picture the room you fight Magma Dragoon in)  
The room contained a singular platform surrounded by lava. As the hunters ran through the shutters locked up behind them. Dagmor couldn't help but laugh at the hunters standing before him. "I've been waiting for you hunters. You rookies have caused far more trouble to my compatriots than I'd ever have believed possible. And you destroyed my own troops effortlessly. I would congradulate you, if you weren't going to be dead in a few moments. Well not completely, I've decided to use your lifeless bodies as prototypes for my new soldiers since you destroyed these so easily."  
"Over my dead carcass," spat Reaver.  
"Presicesly," smiled the maverick as he readied his lance and scythe. "And now, we fight."  
Dagmor sent a wave of energy into Jet, blasting him backwards. Reaver charged at Dagmor and the two crossed scythes. Dagmor laughed at how easy the battle was, he shoved Reaver off balance with his scythe and slammed the lance into him with his other hand. Blue electricity sizzled through Reaver's body and the blow slammed Reaver into the wall. He was done. By this time Jet was back on his feet, twin sabers in hand. He ran at Dagmor who thrust his lance at Jet. Jet ducked under the lance thrust and leaped over the scythe swing that followed. He slashed at Dagmor with the sabers but this only seemed to make him angry. With a mighty blow, Jet was also beaten into the far wall.  
"Damn," Jet thought, "I should have thought about this before rushing into death. I know it was the only way I could return to the hunters but this is suicide. If X and Zero had trouble, what chance do I have?"

**(Zero's theme metalized x2)**  
As Dagmor closed in the doors behind Jet exploded inward and Xero dashed in.  
Dagmor smiled. "Ah, you must be Xero Bloodline, the famous "Bloody Nightmare." I've heard alot about you. Finally someone worth my time. Are you really as strong as they say?"  
"No," Xero grinned. "I'm stronger!" He turned to Jet and Reaver, "You guys get out of here now."  
Jet looked at Reaver, "You go. Plant some charges, blow this place. We can't let Dagmor create more troops."  
Reaver nodded. "Right," he said and took off.

**(Colonal and General)**  
Xero fired the Final Flash at Dagmor who quickly erected a shield. When he looked up Xero was behind him slashing with the Soul Reaver. There was a dull clank with every swipe but it didn't seem to have any effect.  
"That's not possible...," Xero began, "Not even a scratch..." Dagmor swung his lance, Xero disappeared and reappeared behind him once more, driving his saber into the ground for the Final Impact.  
"_Impossible_," thought Jet, "_How is he surviving such a powerful attack with no damage_?"  
Then he remembered X's words. "They say half of his power came from this lance, nobody knows what it is capable of..."  
"_That's it_!" Jet realized, "_Its the lance_!"  
Dagmor whirled around and caught Xero with his scythe sending him flying backwards. He landed near Jet and. Dagmor began to move towards the two of them. Xero sprang to his feet, and jumped into the wall behind them, then turned and jumped off delivering a punch to Dagmor's head. "Shatter Force!" he cried.  
Dagmor landed on his back stunned but undamaged. Jet took the opportunity to fly forward and grab the lance. He hovered over the lava and hurled the lance in.  
"NOOO!" screamed Dagmor. Then Xero blasted him back with a beam of energy. He slammed into the far wall but jumped off before landing in the lava. As he charged at Xero scythe raised a blast of water hit him from above, Jet hovered pouring Inundation down on him. Xero charged a blast of energy and fired. Dagmor blew up in a fiery ball.  
Jet landed. "Common kid," Xero said, "Lets get out of here."

**(Cast role x3)**  
Reaver stood on a building watching as the factory exploded. "_Where are they_," he thought. "_Didn't they make it out before it blew_?"  
"Hey Reaver!" Jet yelled, breaking his thoughts. Jet and Xero ran up to Reaver.  
"Well I guess thats that," said Xero. "I'll see you around Jet."  
"Wait, Xero," Jet began, "How the heck did you find us?"  
"You gave me your comm frequency and beacon earlier when you were helping me find Snakeman remember," Xero explained. "I just followed that."  
"Glad you showed up." said Reaver.  
"Don't mention it, it was kind of fun." replied Xero. "I'm gonna get going though, hit me up sometime, we'll do lunch." And he teleported.  
"We should get back to HQ..." started Reaver.  
"Yeah..." Jet paused to look at the burning factory. "Yeah, you're right lets go."

Back at the hunter base, Jet was talking with X and Zero. X appologized for suspecting him of being a maverick and Jet forgave him. He had to admit, all the evidence had counted against him. They both thanked him for his part in ridding the world of a Maverick Lord, a great accomplishment for any hunter, let alone a rookie.  
Jet started to protest, "It wasn't just me, I told you Xer-"  
"Yes we know," X said, "You've already told us. But you did well too and we thank you."  
Jet was dismissed and Zero followed him out of the room. "Hey Jet, about Xero, call him here. We've got a gift for him as a token of our appreciation for helping to destroy Dagmor."

As they were waiting Zero showed Jet Xero's gift. "What!" exclaimed Jet. "No way! That's no way to thank Xero!"  
"Trust me," Zero told him. "This is the only way to thank a Bloodline."  
They met Xero outside. Zero went forward to shake his hand and thank him personally. Then Jet walked forward and handed Xero a box. Xero quickly tore it open and held up its contents.  
"This is... a jar of PEANUT BUTTER!" he began his eyes bulging. He grabbed the jar and ran away laughing like a maniac.  
Jet looked at Zero completely bewildered. Zero laughed, "Told you so."

END OF CHAPTER 5


	6. Chapter 6

"Its time for the next mission," X announced, "You'll all be working as a team for this one."As he pointed to the mission computer, X continued, "In this mission, you'll be headed to South Africa, where you'll help rescue the locals from a maverick base in the area. Get equipped, you leave tomorrow. And beware the heat there will overload most reploids in a matter of a few hours so keep covered."

The next day a dropship came to pick up the hunters. X was there to see them off. "Ok hunters its time to go, you'll be dropped off about a quarter mile from the encampment. It is heavily populated with maverick forces. They are equipped with new weapons and armor, be careful it is currently unknown as to what these weapons are truly capable of."

Hours later the hunters were dropped off in Africa. Reaver looks up the sky. "It just had to be a extreme heat mission," he grumbled... He looked around, no sign of mavericks yet...

"sigh Back to the field..." Giga said trailing off. "Sure is hot though. Plenty of sunlight for the vine weapons right?"  
"Well that's one way to look at it I guess," replies Jet. "And we're all togather so we'll do better if there's another ambush. I don't see why they couldn't drop us closer to the base though, I hate walking and especially in this heat. Gotta suck it up though, there are humans counting on us, who knows what the mavericks have done to them."

The desert was hot and the sand dunes were high. There was little wind was though so it made for easy walking, despite the heat. Several of the reploids had made arrangements to bring ice weapon chips and water to help cool off. As they continued toward the encampment, there were no signs of maverick activity at all.  
Several of the higher ranking hunters seemed nervous, while the rookies of the group just kept quiet. They snuck up to the encampment and gathered near the back doors. They planted some charges which blew down the doors and rushed into the building. Sitting in the middle of the floor was an automated holographic message.

"Greetings hunters, my name is Terra Groundhog."  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Name: Terra Groundhog  
Model number: ghr-351 (head mine digger )  
Height: 5'  
Weight: 300 lbs  
Future Armor description: dark brown over most of body, light brown on stomache and face, has small holes in his back for drills and large openings on his arms and legs for drills, also can change his hands and feet into drills  
Weapon specialty: strike drill (fires a drill propelled by a rocket straight in the direction launched, when charged smashes into the ground launches large rocks 10 feet into the air)  
Unit: maverick 8th general  
Short bio: While working as a miner he dug up a piece of Sigma, merely by touching the fragment he turned maverick, this short maverick has a terrible temper and hates to be made fun of because of his small stature. Provoking him causes him to become more vicious and attack relentlessly, though it tires him out extremely quickly.   
----------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"And I am in control of this facility, though you will not live to see any more than this room." and with those words the ground rumbled and a monsterous machine burst out of the sand dunes.

**(Express UG)  
**"Great," mutters Jet, "We gotta flush the little rat out of his hole before we can kill him." He automatically reached down for the lance that was no longer there. The shock surprised him for a minute but he shrugged it off and pulled out his duel sabers. He flew ahead of the other hunters up next to the machine and started hacking at its treads but it wouldn't stop. Getting an idea, Jet flew above the machine and poured Inundation down on the ground making the sand muddy. The machine was rendered immobal due to the muddy ground.

All at once the turrets can online and fired wildly at the hunters. Ace was too slow and he took a particularly nasty hit. One of the elite hunters ran over and touched him. He was immediatly teleported back to the hunter base. A split second later a cannonshot blew the hunter into a million pieces. Jet blew around the slow clumsy machine, hacking off gun turrets and other weapons. Soon it was near defenseless. Jet flew to the hatch in on top and plunged his sabers into it.

The tanklike machine began to slow down, large billows of smoke poured out and an explosion rocked the side of it. There was another explosion and the ship stopped completely. Terra Groundhog apperared through a hole in the side. He shouted insults that were lost in the noise of the machine. He dove back in and reappeared in another hole in the ship and began firing drills at the hunters.

Reaver observed the hog coming up and down and he found dodging the drills increasingly irritating. He looked up the sky again, being greatly weakened by the burning sun didn't really made him happy either... "Fck this!" Reaver yelled angrily and jumped into the hole the hog popped up last.

As the maverick began poking his head out of the holes and firing drills, Jet stopped trying to hack his way into the hatch on top. He flew in front of the machine, charged the elemental cannon and waited for the mole to show his ugly head... "I always did like the Wack-A-Mole game..."

"COME OUT HERE SO I CAN RING YOU SHORT NECK!" Giga exclaimed with rage. "If you don't get your munchkin' a$$ out here, I'M COMIN' IN!" he said leaping into the hole Reaver disappeared into.

The portly maverick leaped in front of Reaver and Giga and turned a crimson red.  
"MUNCHKIN, I'll show you!" he yelled angrily and began launching his drills as fast as he could in every direction.

Jet hovered, waiting for the maverick to show its head. Then he noticed his fellow hunters were no longer on the ground. Jet could hear the sounds of battle from within the machine. He flew into one of the holes hoping to sneak attack the maverick while it was fighting his friends.

"Haha!" the maverick shouted as he shot another drill, hitting Reaver in the shoulder with it. Clearly in pain, he dropped his daggers to the ground and grabbed the scythe from his back with his other arm, activating it as he slashed lightning fast in an upward motion, ripping through the mavericks chest. Small shards of ice flew through the air from the wound, as it was frozen from the slash. The maverick flew backward and landed on his back.

Jet followed the noise of the battle until he found the maverick on its back and Reaver standing a few feet away with his scythe. The maverick started to rise and shoot more drills at Reaver. Jet dashed forward and drove both sabers into the general's back.

Reaver tried to get the drill out of his shoulder with great difficulty. He finally managed it. He paused to breathe a sigh of relief and looked up when he heard two sabers slashing something, followed by a loud scream of pain. He saw the drills coming towards him at amazing speed, all too late to dodge them. The drills hit him in the chest. Reaver flys backward, the force slamming him onto the ground where he lies motionless.

Giga screamed and ran over to Reaver. Seeing the maverick's attacks cause Reaver to crumple to the floor drove Jet into a frenzy. He stood for a minute in awe at what had just happened, then as it dawned on him he went crazy. He sliced the maverick's back again and again, without even noticing that he had stopped moving. Eventually he stopped assaulting the maverick's back. What remained of it crumpled to the floor. Jet stood panting for a second and then hurried over to Reaver's side.  
As Reaver lay on the ground, struggling to breathe, he looking around the room with his eyes wide. He couldn't believe that it would end like this, because of a moment of carelesness... Eventually, his breathing starts to slow down, his eyes slowely close, as Reaver loses conscience...  
Jet screamed into the com to the maverick hunter base, "Transfer him back now! He hasn't got much time left, he needs medical attention." In a flash of white, Reaver's body disappeared. "Don't worry," Jet said softly, "I'll free those humans."

Jet strode back into the base. Smaller mavericks tried to stop him but they were no match for him. He marched around until he found the holding cells for the humans and drove his sword into the lock. "Don't worry," Jet told them, "You're free now."

With the destruction of Terra Groundhog all the doors were unlocked. Upon invstigation for further mavericks, they noticed more of the blue blood, several plans for machines, and long complex codes written on scraps of paper. The codes seemed to be highly advanced chemical cocktails. Gathering them all up and placing them into a bag, the hunters eliminated all remaining mavericks.  
One of the hunters turned to the ruins of Terra Groundhog and noticed the sparking core still intact. Grabbing hold of it fed the data for his weapon to all the active hunters.  
---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Weapon specialty: Strike Drill (fires a drill propelled by a rocket straight in the direction launched, when charged smashes into the ground launches large rocks 10 feet into the air)

secondary- This weapon can be attached to an arm to be used as a small sword, it also can break large rocks or walls if fired at them. Punches small holes through metal.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Once back at base Signas began over the intercom:  
"Good job hunters, today we struck a definitive blow to the maverick forces by crippling their lab. I would ask all hunters at this time who have not done so to please procede to the weapon ship and pick up their new upgraded armors. Furthermore would X and Zero please report to my office."

END OF CHAPTER 6


	7. Chapter 7

Shortly after the hunters were equipped with their new armors, they were given orders to go to the command center. Upon arriving, Signas turned to them and said:  
"Greetings hunters, we have a new mission for you. After the last one the mavericks have recently set up a camp in the cold region of northern Canada. Up there they have begun secret testing of a new bio weapon rumored to put an end to the humans and reploids alike. Please investigate. Since this is a colder environment mission, be prepared for sudden temperature drops and subartic combat. That is all for now you are dismissed. The mission will begin whenever you want to leave, just meet up somewhere along the way. You can consider this a solo mission, be equipped to fend for yourself. You may depart when you are ready."  
With this the hunters filed out to begin preparations.

"Blast," thought Jet. "I hate the cold with a passion." He headed to the armory and picked up his new armor. Gazing at the pile of weapons he wondered if he should pick up a new weapon to replace his lance but he thought better of it. "X would probably get mad at me again if I did," he thought. Gathering his weapons he walked up to the medbay to see how Reaver was doing before leaving on the mission.

Reaver heard a distant voice. "Look, he's waking up!"  
_"Ugh, damn my chest hurts! What happened?"_ Reaver thinks while he is still partially unconscious...  
He opened his eyes, looking around the room. He lay in a bed, bandages wrapped around his torso.  
"How do you feel? Can you remember anything?" a doctor besides his bed asks. Reaver makes no reply, he continues to observe the room, his armor lies in a corner on the ground with a large hole in it, his weapons on a chair beside him. Slowly he begins to remember what happened.  
"You okay?" the doctor besides him asks again.  
"Yeah, I guess I'm fine..."  
"Don't worry about the mission," the doctor smiles "I heard the others took care of it. You just take some rest."  
The doctor is about to leave the room.  
"Oh and one more thing, don't worry about your old armor, the new upgraded armors have just come in, so you don't need that one anymore."  
"MY NEW ARMOR!" Reaver says surprised.  
"Yeah, they dropped it of at the armory, the others already got it earlier because... hey what are you doing?"  
Reaver gets out of his bed.  
"You can't leave like that! You're situation is critical"  
"I'm fine!" Reaver smirks as he grabs his weapons while leaning on his scythe. Ignoring the words of the doctor, he heads to the armory leaning heavily on his weapon...

Ace went to the weapon shop and got his new armor, then ran back to the command center. "Darn it, I can't believe that I couldn't do anything on that mission." He looked around and didn't see anyone, so he just waited.

One hunter looked to his friend as he read off the label on the box:  
"New Titanium Fusion armors, most popular among hunters and reploids in heavy warfare conditions. Increases defense over all currently existing armors. Now includes a customized hypermode (available on pre-order only.) Refined weapon ports for more weapon energy and enhanced tactical sensors for better battlefield intel. Lighter than current competitors for faster movement. Includes a minor upgrade to the regeneration system, minor hits can be recovered in under an hour (under optimal conditions). The core of the armor also has been refined and is more protected from direct hits which cause system failure.  
!CAUTION! exceeding 2 tons of force per square inch may cause system instability."  
The second whistled as the first finished reading it, and set the last of the crates with the super armors for the other hunters down.  
"Say what do you think one of these would cost?" asked the first hunter.  
The second hunter frowned for a minute then replied, "Probably arround 2-3 million per armor, I just know they aren't cheap. Rumor is they were specially designed by Dr. Cain based off of X's most powerful armors and that they aren't available to the public yet."  
"Lucky batch of rookies came at exactly the right time," the first muttered.

Fully equiped with his new armor, Reaver starts to test its functions. The healing function automatically kicks in, providing some relief, but nowhere near enough to recover.  
"_I HAVE to get back in the field_..." Reaver thinks.  
"Nice to see you in action man. I knew you'd make it," Giga said to Reaver as they passed in the hallway.  
Reaver walked on getting a bit dizzy from bloodloss. "Ugh, what a headache..."

Jet walks around the base checking on all the other rookies before the mission. He walks by Ace and Zo and waves hi. He gives Ludakris a hi-five and walks on. He looks for Reaver who it seems had left the med bay before he was cleared. He remembers Lixi and checks on her. She still hadn't recovered from the grenade blast in the Amazon and was still deep coma. Jet lingered by her bed a few moments and then left in the direction of the teleporter.  
The new armor kicked in, even though he wasn't seriously hurt he could still feel its soothing effects. Many other hunters looked at him enviously. Jet just smiled and wondered how it would serve him out in the field.

Reaver teleported into the mission and looked around. Everything was white, snow gently fell from the sky, and a cold, soothing wind blew. Reaver closed his eyes and crossed his arms. He loved the cold, originally he would have been designed to handle all temperatures with ease but his creators only managed to finish the cold resistance before they were attacked. He stood there for a while... Until he starts speaking to himself.  
"Enough of this, it's time to harvest..." he grins.  
He grabs his scythe of his back and activates it. He notices a couple of rabbots standing not far from him. Observing their movement Reaver laughs. "Looks like you will be the first to be used!" He dashes of towards the rabbots, holding his scythe as if it was a farming scythe...

Equipped with a long saber and his new armor, Giga teleported to the next mission. While admiring the snow peaks and moutains, a group of mecha snowmen approached. Seeing this, Giga cracked his knuckle, "I'll give you a silent night! DIE FROSTY!" and with that, he sliced through all but one snowman which he punched apart and took a snowball from. "Alright, let's check the rest out," he said walking off.

It seemed like the other hunters were departing. Jet made his final preparations and teleported too. He was a little nervous about the cold but he knew it wouldn't be too bad, he'd been living in the north for some time and could stand it. It got to him at times but cold water was really the only thing that would stop him. Besides, it was just Canada, just a short bit north of Minnesota, where he'd spent most of his childhood. Better than the Antartic or something like that. "I wonder why we're all going in seperately?" Jet thought, "Bet we've got to find the stupid base again, we must be splitting up to cover more ground." As the transfer began another figure leaped on to the teleporter with Jet, he couldn't quite make out who it was with all the light...

One swift slash, and the rabbots are destroyed.  
"This is what I came for." Reaver grins.  
He just stands there for a moment, doing nothing. All of a sudden, the parts of the dead mechaniloids start to move towards Reaver, becoming liquid in the process. The liquid fluid goes right through the armor and Reaver feels the pain fading away... The wound is gone, healed using tissue of the rabbots... He bursts out laughing maniacally, he felt so powerful at the moment, for he regained at least some of the powers he was originally for designed. It became clear why he quickly went berserk during missions, he was designed that way. For the wounds could heal as soon as he killed another one...  
His kill did not go unnoticed however, a maverick had noticed him and was running in the other direction, probably to alarm other mavericks.  
"Let him run..." Reaver thinks, "I'll be there to fight you... No matter with how many you are..."

A blast of cold wind hits Jet in the face as the transfer completes. He looks up at his companion.  
"Tank! What are you doing here!"  
"Nice greeting," laughs Tank. "I just completed a really tough mission and I got some time off. Remember when X and Zero went to fight Sigma last? I was one of the hunters chosen to go along with them. This time Sigma was cloning hundreds of Viles and as we entered his base a group of them attacked us. The rest of our squad was destroyed and I fought off the clones while X and Zero went ahead to stop Sigma and the machine creating them. Command was so impressed they might give me my own unit. Since I'm on leave and wasn't busy I figured I'd see what you're up to. Besides, I know you're not too fond of ice."  
"Tank I don't need a babysitter!"  
Tank laughed, "That's why Sub had to save you back in New York right? I heard about that."  
Jet gritted his teeth, Tank laughed again. "Come on, lets go find that base."

Reaver walked around aimlessly, not really sure what the mission was. He was so obsessed in trying out his healing capability, he totally forgot about the actual mission. He climbs a hill to overlook the surroundings, noticing two figures a few hundred meters away. And in the other direction another figure, and someone else even further away... But no sign of anything else.  
"Probally fellow hunters..." Reaver thinks.  
He is about to head to one of the hunters, when he hears a familiar voice behind him...  
"My men said you were here..."  
Reaver turned around, armed with his blaster. It was the maverick who gave him the ice-chip back in the jungle.  
"YOU! Are you following me or something."  
"I could ask you the same thing traitor..." the maverick replied.  
Nobody says anything for a while, until the maverick starts to speak again...  
"Heh, I fear I must force you..."  
"Force me? For what?"  
The maverick made no reply, he activated his scythe, which revealed a hot flaming blade.  
"You may begin the battle," the maverick said.  
"With pleasure!" Reaver replied, activating his scythe, which revealing the iceblade once again.  
A moment later they clash...

At the maverick base a few miles north of the hunters positions, Tundra Fox stood outside enjoying the cold air. Interrupting his silence, a minor maverick raced to his side. "Sir, we have intruders."  
Tundra fox turned slowly to look at the maverick. "I know that," he snapped as he shredded the maverick bots head.  
Motioning with his hand, he indicated to another bot to come closer. Hesitantly, the second moved forward.  
"Collect the parts from that maverick, they are still of use to me." The bot quickly gathered the parts and rushed them into the base.  
Another bot holding a blue vial moved closer.  
"Yes?" Tundra Fox asked.  
"This is the new batch sent directly from the master, it contains his blood, and should be much stronger than any of the previous strains."  
"Hmm, I'll have to test it then, these new rookies are proving to be much more than we had bargained for. The master said they would be strong but he didn't say they would be this strong, so i guess they'll be the first to have strain DF-27X21 used against them."  
He took the vial and opened his armor. He placed it gently in a specially designed holder and closed his armor again.  
"I'll wait to use it against the hunters, no sense in wasting it now."

----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Name: Tundra Fox  
Model number: act-503 (artic reconnaissance unit)  
Height: 5'10"  
Weight: 160lbs  
Future Armor description: pure white with red jewels on his feet and arms, short sharp claws on hands and feet, a long swirling white tail.  
Weapon specialty: freeze lazer (uncharged- fires a thin intensively cold beam which can freeze small-medium things, charged- fires a larger beam of intense cold with ice daggers materializing and flying at the enemies through the beam.)  
Unit: maverick 1st  
Short bio: Was exploring the artic when a chunk of the maverick virus landed nearby, it exploded and showered tundra fox with the maverick virus. It froze to him and when it unthawed it had integrated into him, turning him maverick. Tundra Fox is extremely quick thinking and very agile. His armor is extremely resistant to cold and perfectly suited for a frosty environment, the coloration makes him hard to spot, especially since he moves so fast.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jet and Tank trudge through the ice and snow. Rabots pop up occasionally but Jet hacks them to pieces while Tank watches. "_The hunter's were a good thing for him_," Tank thinks, "_He's definately stronger than before_." At the top of a hill the two pause for a rest and see what appeared to be the base in the distance. The two slowly walked down the hill. Back at the top, some mavericks had been tracking them. Rather than face the hunters head on they triggered an avalanche. Jet heard a chash and the roar of the avalanche and activated his jet boots just in time. He turned around to see Tank disappear under the torrent of snow...

Hiking through the mountains, Giga spotted a maverick. It looked to be a grunt level maverick and he thought, "_Maybe this guy could lead me to the base_..." So he followed the maverick, which sure enough lead him to the bases location. Suddenly, he heard a crash. Looking, he saw an avalance had occured. "Glad I wasn't over there," he said sarcastically, "now on with the mission." He followed the maverick further into the base to find more mavericks. Suddenly the grunt he'd been following turned and saw him. Before he could sound the alarm, Giga grabbed the maverick by the mouth and held him at saber point. "If you make a sound, I'll blow your frigin head off! Got that?" he asked as the maverick nodded. "Good now where's your boss?" he asked, and the maverick lead the way. " Good work, now get outta here. You've got 10 seconds," he said releasing the maverick. But to it's surprise Giga jabbed his back with the saber and he was destroyed. "Never let a maverick live," he muttered. He turned back to the fox maverick and thought, "_I better check this guy out_."

Reaver battled on the maverick, neither of them had damaged the other, as they were roughly equal... The scythe's clashed again, steam rose from the blades. Reaver quickly backflipped, activating his daggers and throwing them at the maverick, who simply sidestepped. The maverick lunged at Reaver, who jumped over him and quickly dashed, resulting in massive flames from the thrusters in his feet, scorching the maverick... Reaver quickly teleported to his daggers to pick them up, turning around he noticed the maverick unschatched, even though he just got hit by two massive flames.  
"I'm resistant to fire..." the maverick grinned, "but I may be a bit vulnerable to cold..."  
"WHAT?" Reaver couldn't believe it, a maverick who had the opposite weakness and resistance...  
"And I also know that you are exactly the opposite," the maverick continued.  
"JUST SHUT UP!" Reaver armed his blaster with explosion crash, firing away, resulting in a huge avalanche down below. The maverick attacked Reaver with the same attack, then quickly changed, using "strike drill" to shoot a couple of drills in Reaver's direction. He barely evaded them.  
Reaver was shocked... How the hell could this maverick use the same weapons Reaver had?

Jet hovered over the snow staring at the spot that Tank disappeared. After the snow stopped he landed and began digging furiously but couldn't find Tank. Then he heard an explosion in the direction of the base. "Hang on Tank, I'll be back after I sort that mess out." and he blasted off in the direction of the base.

In a fell swoop, the maverick slashed Reaver, who fell down the hill. Shocked the maverick looks down the cliff, only to see he dissapeared.  
"You lose!" He hears behind him, Reaver quickly had teleported himself behind the maverick, and was now tightly gripping his foe's neck. "Now you are going to tell me who you are and why the hell you have the same powers!"  
The Maverick gasped. "F-fine... I am the flare aspect of the Reaver project and I am linked to your systems, so I can use the same master weapons you have. I thought you knew... You suffer from amnesia or something?"  
"What the hell is 'The Reaver project'?"  
"You really forgot everything didn't you? Allow me to explain... You are the ice aspect of the Reaver project, codenamed Frost, and I was Flare. Now there were supposed to be two more, codenamed Wind and Shock. Eventually we would have been merged to one reploid, one which would have been impossible to beat. But they found out and quickly eradicated the laboratory, leaving you alive for some reason. The scematics were lost so there is no hope to continue the project, but you and I could still fight side by side, which would made us a considerable force!"  
"Then why do you side with the Mavericks?" Reaver asked, "They destroyed the base in the first place!"  
"YOU STILL DON'T GET IT DO YOU?" the maverick named Flare answered aggitated. "The hunters destroyed the base. Reaver... you are a maverick."

Tundra Fox walked around the base. Inside, the bots were rushing around at a feverent pace trying to pack things up for a hurried evacuation, the order had just been sent. And Tundra Fox was not thrilled. His anger was not helping as he smashed a few bots which slowed the pace down.  
"ARGH, I can't believe master doesn't trust me. After all I've done to protect this base thus far, we're abandoning it! Those pitiful hunters, I will make them pay before I leave here!" he yelled.

MEANWHILE- elsewhere

In a blackened room 2 figures were barely visible, one in black armor and one in a cloak, watching the ongoings,   
"Tundra Fox is a fool," began one.  
"Ah but never count him out, he is more than what he appears to be. And with my super virus he may just have what it takes to win."  
"Hmmph, the previous versions of the virus didn't do so well for the others so what makes you think this version will be different?"  
"This one is from my blood and is the strongest combination of the sigma virus, the nightmare virus and my own person cocktail of my blood, the blood of thousands of reploids, some nano machines and a few other performance enhancing additives."  
Unknownst to the 2 shadowy figures, their conversation was being heard. Giga was recording to the hunters back at Hunter HQ. Signas immediately opened the communication channels despite the radio silence warning usually reserved for missions,  
"Attention all hunters, beware of any blue substances you may find, DO NOT ingest or otherwise make use of this, it has dangerous effects on all users. Should you find some, steer clear of it until a decontamination team arrives to remove it."  
At once the transmission being intercepted from the maverick leaders was cut, and a feed back signal shorted out all computers in HQ.

Jet blazed into the base and saw all the mavericks scurrying around carrying crates and boxes. "They're leaving," thinks Jet, "I gotta stop them from getting away." He fired a blast of Inundation from the elemental cannon and was surprised when it froze immediatly. After a second of surprise he charged around the base impaling mavericks with the giant icicle on his arm. As he fought, one maverick ran for the alarm on the other side of the room, there was no way to get there before him. In desperation Jet fired his Inundation again. making the icicle even longer and impaling the maverick before he could sound the alarm. "Cool, I'm liking this," thought Jet. He fired at the last maverick, sending the entire ice weapon crashing into him. He opened the door to the outside and came face to face with what could only be the maverick general, Tundra Fox.

Meanwhile a mile or so away there was a low rumble which gradually got louder and louder. Suddenly there was a sound like a cannon being fired and Tank flew out of the snow 20 feet into the air. He landed on one knee, "It takes more than a stupid avalanche to get rid of me. Those mavericks are going to feel some pain soon."

"W-w-what?" Reaver's eyes were wide, amazed by the new discovery he just made. The grip around Flare's neck loosened.  
"You don't believe me?" Flare asked while freeing himself from Reaver's grasp and turning around to face him. "You know its true. Think about it! Your armor powers and battle strategy all point to the same conclusion. You really think the hunters would make such a cruel ability to use the bodys of the dead to heal yourself? What about your berserking strategy? Just slashing through the forces without bothering to care about your body or anyone else's? Face it Reaver! You have known it all the time, you just denied it!"  
Reaver remembered now. The maverick figures of his memory were in fact hunters. They had slain his makers. The base self-destructed soon after, and he was left alive due to the hunters seeing him as a emotional wreck...  
He didn't know what to say to Flare, who was basically his brother.  
"So, are you going to join us now?" Flare asked.  
Reaver didn't respond, too overwhelmed by emotion...  
"Reaver, we NEED to avenge our makers! I know that was the reason you joined the hunters in the first place! Come join me!"  
Flare raised his hand...  
"If you wish to join our cause, just take my hand. I'll teleport us to the base..."  
Reaver hesitated, should he join the maverick? Or fight for the hunters and try to help mankind? He couldn't make up his mind, knowing that this decision would decide the rest of his life...  
Eventually, he takes Flare's hand and immediately the two are transported away...

Giga watched as the 2 shadowy figures teleported, resulting in static over the comm. He decided to go looking for Tundra again, so lurked around the base a bit.  
Suddenly he heard a voice saying, "Freeze! Hands up!" It was a grunt maverick. Giga raised his arms and began to stretch.  
"Will you come quietly?" asked the grunt.  
"Hmm? Oh no, I'm just tired. C'mon, let's have it." he said pulling out the snowball and pelting the maverick. He followed up by cutting its head off.

Jet leaped back in surprise of seeing the general. He recovered quickly and blasted the fox with all the fury of the Scorcher. As the smoke cleared he heard Tundra's laugh as he strode out of the smoke cloud. Jet drew his swords and spun them around. "Alright then, lets do this."

Reaver and Flare were transported just behind Tundra Fox.  
"Tundra! I succeeded! He joined us once again!" Flare told him excitedly.  
Tundra smiled warmly, as if one of the family had come back.  
Reaver's face showed no emotion. He glared at Jet who stood in front of him, swords drawn...  
"I shall take him on!" Reaver said in a clear voice. As he stepped before Tundra and Flare... Activating the scythe, he took a battle pose as Flare and Tundra watched...

Fuse, another hunter ran up and immediatly began attacking Tundra Fox. Tundra Fox had had enough playing and said to himself, "Heh, guess we get to see what this new breed of virus does..."  
Activating the virus, Tundra Fox's eyes turned deep blue and he began to yell in agony, his mechanical muscles vibrated and activated on their own as the virus took hold and began to change his infrastructure. Tundra's musclature grew and as it did his armor which cracked and expanded. The blue blood started ot ooze and drip out, falling and freezing on the ground.  
Everyone else stopped and gasped as they saw what was happening to Tundra Fox, they watched as he writhed and gasped, then his body went limp, and all assumed him dead.  
Fuse grabbed him trying to shock him down to his bare components with his electricity. Suddenly Tundra's eyes lit up and he reached out and broke Fuse's grip, putting a hand on each of Fuse's arms he pushed them down into the ground. Tundra Fox then with a swiftly kicked out, broke Fuse's left arm off.  
The others stared as Tundra Fox began to disect Fuse part by part, until he was extremely damaged. Tundra Fox leapt back, and rested a moment, then he lept forward again. Tundra Fox placed his hand on Fuse's head and began to charge his weapon, and for a split second what looked like an eternity to Fuse, it was done, Tundra released the charge and Fuse's body froze over with a cold so fierce the metal became brittle. Tundra, grinned evily at his work as Fuse's face was stuck in a helpless gaze, then with a sickening crack, Tundra ended it by punching Fuse's body right in the solar plexus and Fuse exploded into a thousand pieces.  
Tundra Fox stopped moving and fell to the ground. The blood was seeping out faster, and then the changes started to reverse. His armor started to contract back into place, his eyes returned to normal and he stood up, facing the hunters, severly tired but still able to fight.

Jet stared at Reaver in shock. This had to be a bad joke, Reaver must be getting close to the mavericks to spy or attack when they least expected it. "I don't want to fight you Reaver, we're friends remember? I-" He was suddenly cut off by Tundra's screams. He watched Tundra pick up Fuse and tear him to pieces. Forgetting about Reaver and his double, Jet leaped behind Tundra and fired the Inundation blast sending sharp jagged ice into the fox's back.

Reaver blocked the ice shard with his blade, protecting Tundra...  
"You don't want to fight me?" Reaver's eye started to twitch. He took a step at Jet's direction. "I finally found my true allies..." He takes another threathening step at Jet, holding his scythe high above his head activating it.  
"You hunters are the true pest! Going around and killing everyone different from you. YOU HUNTERS KILLED MY MAKERS! AND PREVENTED MY BROTHERS FROM BEING BORN! YOU, THE HUNTER SCUM, ARE THE REAL CANCER ON THIS WORLD!"  
Filled with anger, he blasts a telekenesis blast at Jet. Flare stays by Tundra's side watching as the battle unfolded...

Jets eyes widened as Reaver blasted him. "He's not kidding, he's really trying to kill me." He looked around at the 3 mavericks and realized he was outnumbered, outgunned and in very real danger. However Tundra wasn't in good shape, but for all he knew the virus could start working again sending him into a powerful state, and Flare made no move to attack Jet but he felt that he would if Reaver couldn't win on his own. He sighed and thought, "_If I'm going to die then I'm going to die. But I'm going down swinging. Lets do this right_." Shouting back at Reaver he yelled "You're crazy. A real hunter doesn't kill people different then him, those are the mavericks! The whole reason reploids are considered mavericks is **because** they kill humans. I don't know what "brothers" you're talking about but if hunters killed them it was because they would have killed humans. The mavericks are the killers, come back to us, use your head and think! If you intend to stay a maverick than I know you've gone mad. As an old friend, I shall do what I must."

**(Cannonball)**  
Reaver laughed evily. "You will try." With that he lunged at Jet and swiped with his scythe. Jet managed to leap back just in time. He flew into the air and sprayed Inundation at the ground. Reaver dashed out of the way quickly but Flare wasn't so lucky. He was quickly frozen solid. Enraged, Reaver punched the ice, freeing Flare from his frozen prison. He fell to his knees shivering. "Get out of here," Reaver said to Flare, "You're no good in the cold." Flare nodded and teleported away. Jet charged another blast but was hit in the back by an ice beam from Tundra before he could fire and fell to the ground. "_Damn, I hate the cold too_," thought Jet. "_But I'm not through yet_." He was about to get up when Reaver dashed in front of him and rested his scythe on Jet's head. "Now you die," cackled Reaver. Giga ran out and began dualing with Tundra but his viral form was triggered again and he cast Giga aside with a swat of his hand. The battle was over.

**(Enter the red bomber, a brother's fury)**  
The mavericks stood, savoring their victoy and were about to end it. Then it happened. He came from nowhere, out of the mist he charged. Tank flew into Reaver sending him sprawling and turned to blast Tundra with the largest blast of energy he had ever seen. Giga took this distraction to teleport out. Tank looked at Jet clearly worried, "Get out of here now!" Jet nodded and took off so he could teleport safely as his was malfunctioning due to the damage he'd sustained.  
Tank turned to Tundra who was getting up. "Your kind makes me sick!" and blasted Tundra again.  
Reaver pulled his head out of the snow and saw Jet retreat. "Don't you run from me!" he growled. He managed to slip past Tank while he was focused on Tundra.  
Tundra was not in good shape after these attacks. Summoning all the power his serum could conjure, he blasted Tank with everything he had who met it with his own blast. When the smoke cleared Tank was gone. Tundra smiled. Then a saber in the back made him stop. "No," he whispered, "It can't end like this... I was supposed to be invincible."  
"Sorry to disipoint you friend," replied Tank, "But you're not. And the reploid you were attacking happenes to be a friend of mine. I take slight offense to that. And this is the penalty." With that he slashed Tundra once more and he was gone. Only too late he realized that the other maverick had vanished.

Jet stopped atop a hill a short distance away. He began to imput the coordinates to transfer him away when a blast struck him from behind. He turned and saw Reaver, once more with his scythe at the ready. Jet hesitated, realizing there was no other way and drew his swords. The two warriors dashed at each other and the struggle began.

**(Opening stage x1)**  
Reaver swung his scythe at Jet who ducked under it and slashed Reaver with his blades. He recovered quickly and swung again. Before he could Jet remembered his weakness to the drills earlier and shot a few into Reaver. They did some damage, but thanks to the new and improved armor they weren't as painful as before. Enraged, Reaver cried out and swung his weapon. Jet met the scythe with his blades. As the weapons crossed the 2 former friends glared hatred at one another. Reaver released the scythe with one hand and reached for his gun. Taking advantage of this momentary weakness, Jet continued to hold off the scythe with 1 blade and cut off Reaver's arm with the other. Reaver dropped to his knees, he couldn't go on. Glaring hatred at Jet, he spat out a curse and shouted, "I will be back, and next time it will be different, I swear it!" before he teleported.

Tank ran up the hill and over to Jet. "Glad you're ok," he said.  
"Glad you showed up when you did," Jet replied. "Now lets head back to the base and finish the mission."

In the darkened room the 2 mysterious reploid stood watching the developments over a camera. The one in the cape, looked to the one in black armor, "So the new virus is too powerful..." he started.  
The one in the black armor cut him off. "It may just have been a fluke on the hunter's side, Tundra wasn't fighting at his best and he delayed the use of it until he was desperate."  
"We should scrap it, the side effect of it was too terrible, we can't afford to have our forces defeated by time before they finish off their enemies." replied the caped reploid.  
"I see your point, but I am going to ready this as an emergency weapon for all forces, they can use it as a last ditch attempt, call it an insurance policy."

Meanwhile in the Canadian tundra, Jet and Tank secured the rest of the base. There wasn't much left, the majority of the mavericks had evacuated alone with whatever secrets the base may have contained.  
A cleanup crew was detached from Hunter HQ and one of its members was able to get the core from Tundra's body safely without exposing himself to the harmful blue blood.

"You got..."  
----------------------------------------------------  
Freeze lazer - uncharged - fires a thin intensely cold beam which can freeze small-medium reploids, charged - fires a larger beam of intense cold with ice daggers materializing and flying at the enemies through the beam.  
secondary - reduces damage from cold/artic conditions/ice based weapons by 25  
-----------------------------------------------------

Then the hunters heard Signas over thier comms:  
"All hunters when report back please but head to the Maverick Hunter HQ, not the _Infinity_, we have our HQ back now completely restored. That will be all for now."

END OF CHAPTER 7


	8. Chapter 8

Back at Maverick Hunter HQ, Signas adressed the hunters:  
"After the last mission, we have uncovered a new strain of the maverick virus. The risk was so potentially dangerous we broke comm silence to inform you. And now for a full briefing, I'm turning this over to Lifesaver."  
At the mention of his name the reploid medical officer took the front.  
"This new virus as you have already seen, has the power to increase one's strength immensely. It is unknown however just how strong it makes reploids. The virus seems to be derived from 3 parts - 1 part Sigma virus, 1 part Nightmare virus, and one part unknown reploid blood. The reploid blood is unlike any we've ever seen before, it is identical to almost all our blood except it is much more compatible with different parts. We have dubbed this Variablood for short."  
As Lifesavor finished Signas took over again:  
"Be warned, this virus is extremely dangerous and as far as we know the effects are extremely hazardous. Tundra Fox was almost destroyed by it after using its power to destroy Fuse... however this is not the time for that, we have more pressing matters. There is a hostage situation in Japan, where a large percentage of the world's economic and political powers are meeting to discuss the new reploid and robotic affairs codes. We must assure that these discussions are returned to normal as our fates as hunters may well depend on the outcomes. This mission will likely be indoors and covert. Make no sound, the mavericks are not to know you are there. Rescue any people you find and avoid casualties at all costs, you must hurry there now, prepare and leave asap."

Jet returned to the Maverick Hunter HQ. He was very disturbed by Reaver's betrayal, still fresh in his mind. He thanked Tank again and went to hear Signas's briefing. Afterwards he was asked to stay.  
"Jet," began Signas, "There is someone who would like to speak with you." He motioned to a reploid standing in the back of the room. "Jet, this is Brek, he's the current head of Unit 6."  
The repliod known as Brek came forward. "As Signas said, my name is Brek. I've been watching you closely Jet and after you're training as a rookie is over, I'd like to invite you to join my unit."  
Jet was speechless. "I don't know what to say."  
Signas interrupted him, "You're still a rookie and cannot yet be assigned to a unit. Now its time for you to leave, the other rookie hunters are departing. Get preped and get moving. Remember, this is a stealth mission, we don't want any human casualties."  
Jet nodded. "Got it Signas," and turned to the door.  
"One more thing Jet," Brek began, motioning to 2 other hunters. "These are Galahad and Lancelot, members of the 6th Unit of Maverick Hunters. Since this is such an important mission, I'm sending them along to help."  
"Good to meet you Jet," said Lancelot.  
"We've heard a lot about you," Galahad added.  
Jet shook their hands and the 3 ran off for the teleporter.

Giga was the first hunter on scene. Almost immediatly he spotted a human hostage cowering behind a shielded maverick.  
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Giga and he activated his vine weapon ripping the maverick's shield and arm completely off. Rushing forward he finished the maverick with his sword. He gave the shield to the human and told him to get out of the area.  
"One down, who knows how many to go..."

Jet and his companions were transfered in front of a large building.  
"This must be where the hostages are being kept," began Galahad.  
"It must be," agreed Lancelot. "Why don't we all take separate floors, that sound efficient."  
"Lets do it," replied Jet, "You guys go through the main door, I'm going to fly to the roof and go through the top, we'll catch them from all sides."  
"Sounds good," said Lancelot as he pressed an elevator button. "We'll see you soon."

Jet flew up to the roof and found a mysterious looking reploid looking out over the edge. Jet approaches cautiously, unsure if this was a maverick. "My name is FlashZeroX," the reploid says suddenly as he turned to face Jet. "I've heard quite a bit about you Jet and I've watched you for quite some time now. I have nothing better to do so I decided to join you. Think of me as an aid or a sort of bodyguard."  
Jet stopped dead, he was completely dumbfounded by this unexpected request.  
The strange reploid continued, "I know this sounds forward but by the honor of my saber I will fight by your side and prove my worth!"  
"Umm ok... I guess you can hang around if you want..."

Jet and FlashZeroX crept silently into the building. Jet was a little worried about this strange reploid he didn't even know, especially in light of Reaver's betrayal. He knew this reploid could easily be a maverick but decided to take his chances, he might come in handy. They reached the bottom of the stairway to the roof and spotted a group of humans in a conference room, all with busters to their heads. Jet also spied an alarm button next to the staircase they had just come down.  
"Sit here and guard this button," Jet told him. "Don't let any mavericks sound the alarm, I'm going to free those humans."

Signas stood in the center of the command room, anyone who looked at him could tell he was furious. He turned to Alia who began typing away, trying to mask their signal to the maverick forces before he spoke to directly every active hunter. Finally she gave him the thumbs up and he spoke: "Everyone, it has come to my attention that the maverick forces are planning a massive revolt, our intelligence has indicated that a large maverick force is gathering in space, apparently the mavericks have been hiding on the moon and teleporting to earth through cloaked transmissions. We need every available hunter to return to base and prepare for the massive enemy wave, you will ambush them at 3 points to cut their numbers down before they reach our base. Once they do we will reconverge and concentrate our firepower at them. Extreme firepower is recommended, we will be stocking the newest and latest weapons in our armory. Hunters return to base as soon as you are able for full briefing. Signas out."

Jet and Flash proceeded to clear the remainder of the building systematicly. After Flash proved that he wasn't a maverick by not hitting the alarm, Jet began to trust him a bit more. They charged into each room guns blazing and quickly destroyed all the mavericks before any humans were harmed.

After moving down a few floors they met up with Lancelot and Galahad. The mission was successful, all the humans were safe. Jet was a little disturbed by the ease of the mission. Then the hunters heard Signas's broadcast. Jet looked at the others, "Well that explains why it was so easy. Sounds like we'd better get back to base." He turned to Flash, "We'll take you with us, command can decide what to do with you, they'll probably just let you enlist as another rookie."  
And they warped out.

END OF CHAPTER 8


	9. Chapter 9

"A ROOKIE? ME A ROOKIE? No one at that place better call me a rookie or else they are gunna die," thought Flash. Once there he bumps into X and without realizing who he was, tells him to watch where he was going and then asks where the person in charge was. X silently forgives the rookie's attitude and points to Signas who was conversing with Zero.  
"I wouldn't bother Signas right now though, he's just about to tell off Zero for destroying another hover bike on our last mission. That and the huge maverick army approaching HQ has really gotten him angry. You guys better be careful around him right now otherwise he might go maverick on you," X chuckled and shot a glance over to Signas and Zero. No sooner did he say this then Signas exploded and the room when quiet. "YOU DID WHAT? NOT ANOTHER ONE ZERO, CAN'T YOU RETURN ONE BIKE IN ONE PIECE!  
Zero muttered something under his breath. "I don't care!" Signas went on, "this one's comming out of your salary, seriously, jumping a bridge while riding the bike like a skateboard at top speed fighting 5 mavericks? You're lucky not to have been killed!" Signas suddenly realised that the whole room was listening in. "YOU GUYS GET BACK TO WORK!" he yelled, and turning to the hunters, "and you guys get out there and defend the base!"

Jet left Flash with X, trusting that he would take care of him. He headed to the armory and grabed his new subtanks. He didn't want a new weapon as he was satisfied with his 2 sabers but he decided to switch the power core to something more powerful. Then he waited for Signas to explain the problem in more depth.

Signas stood at the front of the room as the hunters filed in. X stood nervously by Signas' left side, Zero on the right and a few of the other top level commanders behind them. As they settled in, Signas began his speach:  
"Hunters, as you can see on the map the maverick forces have mobilised. We need 3 teams to cut them down and reconverge at the main base to concentrate our firepower. The first cut off point is the city bridge, if you can force some to divert off or stop them from crossing it will give us more time. The second cut off point is the factory district just to the south east of the bridge, intelligence says that they'll be headed there to pick up more weapons and some robot rides. Distrupt them and we won't have to worry about as much heavy artillery. The third cut off point is just before the base, it's an old sewerage processing plant that's no longer in use. The water is shut off, so they're going to use it to enter the sewers and attack HQ from below. Find a way to cut some of them off so we'll have less to deal with. Hunters, HQ depends on this and so do the lives of countless civilians. We cannot afford to fail."  
As Signas finished he turned to X and Zero and whispered to them, "X, Zero, hurry to their base, they'd never expect you to show up there. At this point they'd be most vulnerable, Axl will meet you there for backup. Do some scouting and take out any mavericks you encounter. If you find their leader try and take him out as well." With that, X and Zero warped away.  
Signas eyed the new hunter Flash. He walked over and asked for identification. After recieving satisfactory answers he said:  
"All is in order, we are deperately in need of hunters at this point. We need you on field work asap, you'll be instated as a regular hunter like the rest. You will of course have to complete rookie training but Zero will guide you through that later. As for now get going on the mission with everyone else, I'm sure Jet will escort you around for now."  
"Yes sir," replied Jet.

"Alright, it sounds like we are to do as much as we can at each point and once it gets overrun, warp to the next and do what we can there," Jet said speaking to some of the newer rookies. Even though he was still only a rookie himself, he was much more battle hardened and the newer rookies looked up to him. He motioned to the troops and filed over to the teleporter which was ready to take them to the bridge.  
Once there he set to work directing the erection of a barricade near the center of the bridge. As a final precaution he ordered a bomb be placed. The hunters could fall back and detonate it if they were in danger of losing the bridge.

The mavericks began advancing across the bridge and the hunters hurried to their positions. Jet scrambled behind the barricade and held his cannon over the top to blast the mavericks back. All of a sudden one of the mavericks threw a grenade over the barricade. Jet barely had time to kick it away. The mavericks were taking heavy casualties but there were far too many of them and they kept advancing. Jet took to the sky and rained Inundation down on them, washing them into the river below. Suddenly an energy blast hit Jet and he saw that he wasn't alone in the sky. The mavericks had brought flying warships to transport mavericks across the river. And they were not defenseless, circling around them were aerial mavericks. Jet hoped the hunters on the ground could hold the mavericks...

Reaver stood on one of the warships looking down upon Jet. Flare stood behind him.  
"You're not going to attack?" Flare asked.  
"Bah, he's not my target, I only care for a certain individual..."  
"And who might that be?"  
"Signas..."  
Flare stood speecheless...  
"He should be the one who issued the order to destroy our makers..." Reaver continued.  
"You ARE kidding, right? You can't possibly oppose such a high ranking hunter..."  
"Even so, I can't let this one slide by... HE WILL PAY!"  
Activating his scythe, he began running to the front of the ship. "But I fear I have to shred through many hunters before I can get to him..." he thought as he jumped off. Flare was left behind with a concerned look on his face...

Jet began dodging fire from the airborne mavericks when they exploded suddenly. He saw Flash's gun raised and although he was angry for being protected, he was thankful for the help. Then he wondered how the ground defenses were doing. He dove down, taking out an airborne maverick along the way and was plesently surprised to see Sub and a few other mercenaries had come to aid the hunters. The mavericks were still advancing but with the new troops the hunters were holding the line. Jet soared back up to the clouds and crossed swords with more aerial mavericks. After blowing through them Jet turns his cannon on a the warships. He blows up 3 but the sky fills with them and he cannot prevent all of them from reaching the other side of the river...

Ignoring the warships, Jet lands on the bridge. Things weren't doing as well on the ground as before. With the support of the aerial mavericks, some were starting to break through the hunter's baricade. Their numbers seemed limitless. Even with the extra manpower the merc's provided it wasn't enough. Jet fired his arm cannon in desperation. He would have no choice but to order a retreat soon...

Reaver soared through the sky. As he came close to the ground he activated his burn thrusters downward, slowing him down and scorching an unlucky hunter who stood underneath him. The hunters on the other side immedeatly attacked Reaver. He activated his scythe and started reaping through the hunters. In search for his goal...  
Seeing the fighting on the other side, Flash leaves the bridge and runs back to help. He charges at Reaver who quickly teleported behind Flash blasting him away with a telekenesis. When Flash looked up, Reaver had disappeared...

Jet turned and caught a glimpse of what looked like Reaver fighting with Flash. He blasted Flash back and took off. BOOM! The defensive baricade was breached in a loud explosion. Cursing himself for getting distracted, Jet ordered the hunters to fall back to the factory. He then triggered the bomb destroying the bridge. Many mavericks were consumed in the blast, many others fell from the crumbling bridge into the river below. Jet quickly dashed to the other side. The warships were still flying overhead, many mavericks were still being transported to the other end of the city. After a quick conference with Sub it was agreed that the mercenaries would fight a guerilla war on the mavericks throughout the town and that the hunters should regroup and prepare a defense at the second target of the mavericks: the ride armor factory.

On the way to the factory Jet finds Flash's body and orders him taken back to MHHQ immediatly. Then he heads over to the factory and begins fortifying that area. Hours later he noticed Flash watching him out the med bay window and he called back to him that if he's healed he can come back out here, they could use an extra man. "If not," he continued, "I'm counting on you to handle things inside if they break through us and our sewer defenses and make it inside." With that, he continued fortifying the factory, he placed auto machine guns on the outside as well as a few mounted guns in the windows. He also ordered a few hunters into the sewers to build defenses there and to plant another bomb which would flood the sewers if the mavericks were to break through. Then he strolled inside the factory and came across a particualrly sweet looking ride armor and hopped in. "This ought to give the mavericks some trouble," he thought.

Jet marched out of the base with his new mech ride armor. Flash was cleared from the medbay and offered to run and grab Jet a buster upgrade which he accepted. Then he waited. And waited. After what seemed like forever he could see maverick forces marching up the street. Jet got an idea, a reckless and suicidal idea but it was an idea. Abandoning his position in front of the factory Jet marched his mech down a nearby alley and waited for the mavericks to get closer. He saw the first wave of mavericks run down the alley. The second. The third. And then just as the forth line of mavericks were running past Jet dashed out of the alley, the spiked fist of his ride armor completely annialating the mavericks. The maverick wave ahead of him turned around. They got a spiked fist to their face. Now Jet was surrounded but the hunters at the factory took advantage of the maverick confusion and hesitation and began mowing down mavericks on the turrets. Then more ride armors joined the fray and helped Jet beat down the mavericks. It was utter chaos... and yet... they were winning.

Large explosions lit up the sky. The heavily armed aircraft were in attacking positions and firing away shooting indiscrimintly. Some of the more unfortunate mavericks were blasted away, further reducing the maverick army. But the lumbering presence of the massive air ships more than made up for the casualties.  
A missile hit the sewer plant and destroyed it, the hunters watched in awe as their plan fell apart. They suddenly realized the mavericks never intended to go covertly, this was to be a massacre and the hunters had played directly into it.  
The armored transports flew in and deployed their maverick troops. The hunters struggled to keep up with the expanding maverick army.

Signas stood atop HQ and called out to the hunters via comm:  
"All active hunters on front lines, retreat to HQ." As he said this he pressed a button on his arm. Unknownst to him, Alia came up behind him. Signas shook his head, "For the good of the hunters I have to do this," he said as he pressed the button.  
Suddenly the sky started to light up, huge lightning bolts arced through the sky.  
Alia rushed to Signas. "Signas, what have you done?"  
A small tear made it's way down Signas' face. "I have doomed us Alia, it was the only way. I used the pulse matter -anti matter destroyer cannon mounted on the space platform Helios."  
Gasping at what she heard, Alia quickly raced down the steps back into hunter hq.  
Signas looked down at the devastation, then back to the lightning charged sky. The beam was set to impact soon.

Jet recieved the buster upgrade from Flash and although it was hard to drive 1 handed, it did help to punch and shoot the mavericks. Before long they were slaughtering the mavericks, one of the mercs named Lunchbox was even sniping out a nearby window. The hunters seemed unbeatable.  
Then out of the sky the warships came destroying everything in range of their guns. The factory and many of the hunters defending it were destroyed and Lunchbox's building disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Jet's ride armor flipped over falling on top of him. As it turned out, this saved his life. The guns pounded the armor mercelessly and it was ground to pieces. Then the dropships of mavericks came down delivering even more of the enemy. And Jet caught a glimpse of Signas on to of MHHQ. Suddenly lightning bolts flew. There was something unnatural about them... "What is happening?" he thought frantically.

Reaver dashed through the battling hunters and mavericks. He was about to rip another hunter apart when a lightning bolt struck his unfortunate foe, sending Reaver back-wards and slamming him into the ground.  
"Ow... what the?" Reaver looked around amazed. "Where on earth did that come from?"  
"Dear god! Did they lose their mind?" the voice of Flare was heard behind him.  
"WHOA? Where did you come from?" Reaver asked  
"No time for that! We have to get out of here! Someone has activated the destroyer cannon!"  
"The... what now?"  
"Reaver, be serious! EVERYONE will die! Friend and foe! They have activated a kamikaze attempt!"  
"What? You're kidding me!"  
"I kid you not, everyone is in danger. Command already radioed to every maverick in the area, everyone who can escape is allowed to do so! Reaver, forget Signas and your silly thought of avenging our makers, just save it for another time."  
Reaver turned around, unsure of what to say. "But... we can't let them just die!" Reaver started.  
"Who?"  
"Jet, and all those other rookies..."  
"Never mind them, they already forgot about you anyway!"  
Reaver looked away and spotted Signas on top of the HQ. "THERE HE IS!"  
"Reaver, stop your idiotic idea of revenge! We have to leave now!"  
Not listening to Flare, he ripped a jet-pack of a corpse, and started it up.  
"And do me one favor, at least TRY to find the rookies for me and convince them to escape."  
With those words, Reaver flew off toward his goal.  
Flare stared after him in shock. "Fine then, just make sure you make it back alive..."

Flash noticed something in the sky. It was the black maverick that he had fought earlier! And he was flying towards Signas! He quickly climbed the side of HQ. As Reaver activated his scythe and stepped toward Signas, Flash jumped onto the roof. "Hold it right there! We've got a score to settle."

The remaining hunters began running for cover. In the middle of the chaos there was an energy charge. A ride armor laying in the middle of the street blew up in an enormous explosion. Jet stood there panting with a face so angry even the hunters were afraid. He took to the sky and fired a huge beam at a maverick warship. After the smoke cleared he saw transport ships of fleeing mavericks. He flew at one and destroyed it with his blades then whirled around and demolished another with the beam from his cannon. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck him, he crashed into the ground in a smoldering crater.

As the storm raged on Jet clung to life. Then his chip began to work, auto repair kicked in and using the subtanks Jet took earlier, restored his energy. Jet's eyes fly open. He shot straight out of the crater, blew threw the sky and blasted every maverick on the ground that was in sight. Then his gaze turned to the MHHQ where Signas was still standing. With him were Flash and Reaver. Jet shot over and landed beside the group.  
"Reaver," he began "I don't know what you want but I'm going to let you walk away. I'm giving you the chance to leave now, I don't want to kill you... But you're not hurting anyone here. I'm assuming you've come for Signas. I'm afraid you can't have him, we need him to stop whatever weapon he set off."  
When Reaver made no immediate reply Jet turned to Signas. "What the hell is this? You need to stop whatever you've caused immediatly!"  
"Wait, you caused all this?" Flash yelled at Signas. He moved out of the way to let Reaver pass. "I'll be inside HQ till this is over, Jet you can sort this out."

Jet looked between Reaver and Signas. Reaver's eyes burned hatred while Signas could only sob softly.  
Suddenly the cannon finished charging and with a resounding crash it let loose a massive beam onto the area. It hit the corner of maverick hunter HQ, vaporising Signas instantly. A blue flash of light fortold of X's arrival, and upon seeing the descending beam, he absorbed all the electricity and energy he could muster in the short time and leapt underneath it launching a counter blast. The 2 beams met, X appeared to be holding it off, allowing the others time to retreat. Even the maverick forces ran. X turned his head towards Jet and Reaver giving them a brave, sad smile. The cannon's power was much greater and longer lasting than X's. The beam slowly but surely wore him down, the strain upon X's face was intense. After a few seconds more X could no longer support his beam and disappeared in a flash of light. His scream and explosion could be heard for miles. Without X's power the beam crashed into the Earth, demolishing the hunter HQ and a large portion of the city. Many mavericks and seasoned hunters never made it out.

After the beam disappeared, Zero appeared across the street. "X, even now you protect everyone. I'm sorry friend. I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner to help..." said Zero quietly as he knelt down and covered his head with his hands. The mavericks slowly returned and were poised to defeat the hunters.

END OF CHAPTER 9


	10. Chapter 10

Nothing could have prepared Jet for what had happened. Signas was destroyed, X was destroyed, the hunter base was annialated. But X's sacrifice gave Jet the time to grab Reaver and fly away. He mourned the loss of life inside the base and hoped that others had made it out during X's diversion.  
Jet stood up and surveyed the destruction. Then he turned to Reaver. "Signas is destroyed. What will you do now?"

Reaver stood in awe, overlooking the remains of the base. He wasn't quite sure what to do next. He stood for a while, saying nothing...  
Jet seemed to be patient for a response, he waited quietly for Reaver to speak.  
As Reaver was finally about to respond, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Suddenly he cries out loud, "OH SHIT! FLARE!"  
Leaving Jet behind, he ran back to the smoldering crater as fast as he could.  
Jet was about to follow when he heard a voice behind him. "WHO THE HELL DID THIS?"  
Jet turns to the rookie behind him, Abyss. "It was Signas... and he's dead now. Along with X... and anyone inside the hunter HQ..." He cries out in rage and frustration and sinks to the ground. After a few minutes, Jet regains his composure and realizes that he still has a duty to do. A duty he must do so that those who died may not die in vain. "Come on," he yells to Abyss. "The mavericks will be back, we need to use this time to search the remains of the base for survivors who may be trapped in the rubble." (And Flare...) thinks Jet as he dashes off.

Reaver called around for Flare, checking under rubble and piles of corpses. Slightly panicked and fearing the worst, he couldn't see him anywhere. Then he saw something familiar...  
The scythe of Flare, still active, was imbedded in the ground. Reaver came closer to it to examine it and noticed an arm still tightly gripping the weapon. It was Flare's arm, heavily damaged with wires hanging out from it and making small sparks. The rest of the body was nowhere to be seen.  
Reaver dropped to his knees and knelt down in front of the scythe. His head lowered as tears fell to the ground...

Jet continued digging through the rubble and was overjoyed to see Sub's mercenaries had survived their mission, they had come to help. As their search expanded they found many hunters, some rookies and some of the more expirienced ones. There was no sign of X though. Or Signas. Or Flare. And then Jet saw Reaver. He was down on the ground, he seemed to be in pain. And then he saw the fiery scythe and understood. "Flare," he whispered, "You were my enemy... and I wish it weren't so. Rest in peace..."

Alia came over, she began crying as she saw the remains of X. She move forward to touch them. As she stroked X's face, X burst into pieces and the wind carried them away. Alia's sobs were echoed by the thunder.  
Zero came over, he watched as Alia was lead away. Their eyes met and both saw the tears in the other's eyes.  
He walked to the spot where the blast impacted, where X had given his life trying to fight it off. Catching a piece of X out of the wind, he turned to the rest of the hunters.  
"Listen up" Zero began, "Today marks a new history in the maverick wars. Today we lost both a great commander and one of our greatest warriors. One who fought for truth, justice and everlasting peace. Today we witnessed his sacrifice so we could continue on in his place. He saved us so we could carry on his hopes and his dreams. Signas also sacrificed himself to save us, it is true he fired the weapon but in doing so he crushed quite a few of the mavericks generals. The mavericks lost 7 generals only 4 remain. Their huge fleet was cut apart by the cannon. Signas knew as he fired it he would only get 1 shot, the cannon is now falling from the sky and selfdestructing. Signas, as his final act set it to land on Area Zero, the location of the previous space station crash, Eurasia. This way no other, not maverick nor hunter may use that terrible weapon again." Zero paused after he said this to compose himself. After a minute he continued. "The casualties from this move have been numerous and great for both sides. Thus far, our losses include X, Signas and 24 veteran hunters. X's sacrifice allowed us to rescue all the rookies, all the HQ staff and a good portion of the surrounding area's people. And as I stated before we have confirmed reports of 7 dead maverick generals leaving 4 active. We also have reports of 5 wrecked air fleets, 3 mech platoons and a host of minor mavericks and mechaloids. Now I suggest everyone rests up because this fight isn't over yet. The mavericks will be back." Zero finished his speech and walked into the base to go comfort Alia.

Axl stood outside with the rest of the hunters dumbfounded at the loss of X  
"I don't get it, how could X just die? Its unreal." said Axl.  
The rest of the hunters turned to go back into the demolished base leaving Axl and a few rookies alone outside to go over what had just happened.

Jet and company continued to dig through the rubble. Hours later he came across a familiar looking helmit. "Tank? Tank! Oh god Tank not you!" As he dug franticly a med team rushed over. Tank was lifted onto a stretcher. His armor was cracked and he was bleeding freely. As the doctors marched him away Jet burst into tears. Sub came over and but an arm on Jet, he too had tears running down his face over their friend.

After kneeling on the ground for quite some time, Reaver got up and stared blankly at the scythe...  
"I guess... I'm the last part of Project Reaver now..." He said to the scythe. He pulled the weapon out of the ground and stared into the flames of the blade.  
"Signas has been destroyed... But not by my hand. Still... indirectly I may have been responsable for him activating the cannon... At least I'm sure it was activated due to the overwhelming force of mavericks which I was a part of..."  
He looks around, seeing a few more mavericks fleeing to the extraction point and some hunters who seem to have little interest in him.  
"But... what am I to do now? The mavericks are of little interest to me without Flare tagging along."  
He pulls off the arm from the scythe, holding it in his hand...  
He stood there for quite some time, finally he deactivated the scythe and placed it on his back along with his own scythe.  
He held the Flare's arm in his arms like it was a baby, and wanders away. Feeling the guilt for Flare's demise, he ventured into the distance...

Still saddened about Tank, Jet wanders the remains of the base looking for more survivors. He sees hunters like Tony and Fusion who appear injured but ok as he continues to search the rubble. "Why would Signas do that?" he wonders. "We were winning. And even if they did break through we had a sewer defense planned out."  
Then he noticed Reaver walking away. Even though he was a maverick, Jet couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He also wondered what his next move would be, would he simply walk away or would he be back with more rage than ever before? Jet shook his head, only time will tell.

Meanwhile atop a building, a short distance away from the hunter HQ, Lunchbox peered through his sniper rifle. He radioed Sub who was still at the base. "I think I see something..."

Pyro Cerebrus stood atop his lumbering air craft.  
"Turn it around this instant!" he barked at the pilot.  
"But sir-" the pilot began.  
"I don't care what the orders are, I'm going back to finish the job!" Pyro Cerebrus said as he cut the pilot off.  
The pilot obliged and manuevered the large ship around to return to the HQ.

In a few short minutes, the ship was in firing range.  
"Sir, shall I give the order for open fire?" the second in command asked.  
"No, I want to face them by myself, so I can see what they truely are capable of. Open the hatches and let me out, after that you are free to leave." Cerebrus responded.  
"Bu-bu-but sir, we can't leave," the pilot began.  
"You can and you will, those are your orders."  
The pilot opened the hatches as he was commanded and Pyro Cerebrus leaped out. He landed near the crater the cannon had created. The hunters still outside reacted quickly to his presence, a few ran inside and the rest engaged him in combat.

Name: Pyro Cerebrus  
Model number: bxf 452- flaming trash collector  
Height: 6'11"  
Weight: 350lbs  
Armor description: large blocky armor with red and orange sections on the chest, spikes surround neck and wrists, the charcoal thigh and biceps reveal a massive musculature under the armor.  
Weapon specialty: burning chain (fires a wave of flames 4 feet in an undulating motion, charged fires a larger flame burst 10 feet)  
Unit: maverick 6th   
Short bio: was compacting trash when he stumbled upon a fragment of the sigma virus, upon torching it he became corrupted and filled with a desire to burn things and fueled by a state of the art fission core capable of producing heat in excess of 4000 degrees celcuis. He is distrustful of others but once he becomes friends with them he is fiercely loyal to them.

Jet turned around at the sound of the airship. He was about to blast it but stopped when it dropped off one unit and fled. He focused instead on the lone maverick. Even though this being was not responsible for the death of X, Jet channeled all the hatred and fury he had into his arm cannon and fired at the maverick leader.  
As the energy faded away Pyro was still standing, though parts of his armor had been torn away.  
"Impossible..." began Jet. He turned to Abyss, "We need to attack now!"

Jet tried to signal to Zero and some of the vetran hunters what was going on. He didn't know if anyone saw him but he decided to attack anyway. He flew into Pyro knocking him backwards. Dodging a blast of fire Jet dashed in and sliced him. He waited on the other side of Pyro knowing Abyss would begin his attack.  
When Abyss fired a huge beam, Jet blasted Pyro from behind. The beams impacted the ground and Pyro Cerebrus was caught completely off guard, the beam ripped into Cerebrus and was causing heavy damage. Although his core was absorbing much of the energy, his metal exterior was in rough shape. As the beam vanished cerebrus climbed slowly out of the hole his armor was visibly damaged but the fire in his eyes was burning with a ferocity no one had seen before.  
Cerebrus stood up and ran at Abyss, with a creak and groan of gigantic servos Pyro Cerebrus batted Abyss into Jet. Then he grabbed some of the scrap metal nearby and began to cover himself with it, once he was fully covered, he trigered his weapon and welded the metal to his body, effectively covering all the holes. He realised he was still damaged on the inside but his new armor plating would help him take out the troublesome rookies.

Flash saw that Abyss what about to depleted and blurred in front of Cerebrus. He grabbed pyro blasted him with the omega buster he had taken from the armory and drew his saber. "Its thanks to you mavericks X had to be killed! Its thanks to you mavericks that hunter HQ is destroyed! This is for X!" He slashed him in the chest and blurred out and in again to Abyss and Jet. "I will not let another hunter be killed!"

Sub ran as fast as he could. Lunchbox had just informed him of the maverick general's arrival and he knew his help would be appreciated. "Besides," he thought, "I might have lost Tank. I'm not losing Jet." He rounded a pile of debris and saw the maverick moving to attack a rookie. He was on the ground and appeared to be injured. As the maverick closed in a sniper bullet crashed into his armor, tearing off a piece of the scrapmetal. Sub could just make out the tiny figure in the distance that was Lunchbox as he reloaded his sniper rifle. Sub jumped into the fight, firing madly which drew the general away from the injured rookie. Then the maverick let loose a blast of fire, searing Sub's armor. He collapsed to the ground. It was too much, he could not fight any longer.

"Sub!" yelled Jet, seeing what had happened. When Pyro heard his shout he whirled around and shot a blast of fire at Jet. Jet jumped into the air and used his boots to avoid the blast. Snarling, the maverick sent another blast towards Jet. This time Jet used the ice shot taken from Tundra Fox and met his flame. Jet gritted his teeth, it was almost the same thing X had done, even though neither Jet or the Cerebrus could hope to match those beams. Lunchbox fired again, tearing off more armor and allowing Jet to push the flame back in Pyro's direction. Then the were deadlocked again. Jet hoped Abyss or Flash would take advantage of this distraction and hit the maverick before he ran out of energy.

Abyss appeared behind Cerebrus and blasted him, giving Jet a much needed break. Jet sank to the ground while Pyro swatted at Abyss who had disappeared. Flash jumped out of nowhere and sliced Pyro's head and dashed away. As Pyro spun around confused, Jet stood before him holding a large metal beam and swung it at Pyro's head with such force that it wrapped around his face. Growling, Pyro tore it off and returned the favor tenfold. Flash and Abyss saw Jet fall to the ground, his left eye was completely destroyed.  
Abyss was terrified at the sight of Jet. "How are we ever going to stop him?" he cried.  
Pyro Cerebrus took a menecing step closer and stopped when the unmistakable bang of a sniper rifle pierced both the night sky, and the maverick's head.  
Sparks flew and the maverick cried out in rage and frustration but he was not finished. He charged his flame and let loose a mighty blast, Abyss and Flash were forced to retreat and save themselves, there was no way to pick up Jet's body and move it in time. Jet lay there as the fire swept over his body and felt his mind shut down...

END OF CHAPTER 10


	11. Chapter 11

Pyro Cerebrus stood over Jet and laughed. He turned toward Abyss and Flash and prepared to destroy the remaining hunters.  
There was a flash of green and a beam of energy sliced Pyro Cerebrus down the middle of his body.  
"Maverick scum.." snarled Zero as he cleaved off Cerebrus's head and kicked the body into the dirt.  
He hurried over to Jet and knelt down examining the wounds.  
"You two," he said indicating to Flash and Abyss, "Take him to Lifesaver immediatly, I'll carry this mercenary."

"How are they?" Zero asked Lifesaver.  
The doctor slowly limped over to Zero, not even he had escaped the blast entirely, the falling debris has injured a leg and broken one of his arms.  
"This one," he said pointing to Sub, "will make a full recovery. Jet I'm afraid is in far worse shape. He wouldn't be alive at all if it were not for the new armor, that protected him from most of the heat. There is nothing anyone can do for his left eye, its completely gone, the most I can do is give him a mechanical replica. It won't be so bad, we can give him telescopic vision and more improvements as they are designed."  
"Interesting," considered Zero. "But what about the rest of his body, he took a quite a beating before I got there."  
"He will be out for awhile. But with rest and time I think he will make a recovery. Who knows? His new abilities might come in handy one day."  
"Thank you Lifesaver, I don't know what we'd do without you."  
"I'm just doing my job so you can do yours," the doctor replied. "Speaking of which, you'd better get back to the command room, I know you're needed much more now.."

Weeks later in the control room Zero was panicking, with Signas' death he became the highest ranking person in maverick hunter HQ and now he was being bombarded with problems.  
"ENOUGH" shouted Zero as he tried vainly to get things in order.  
The door opened and Alia walked in. Zero managed to break away from the mob and walk over to her.  
"Alia, how are you?" Zero began.  
"Fine Zero, really. Its just... I miss him.." she replied as she looked away.  
"Alia, I need you to be strong and help me get this place back together, I can't deal with this alone." Zero started.  
Alia looked up into the crimson hunter's eyes and tried to force a smile.  
Zero tried to smile back but was dragged back into the angry workers mob. Alia turned to a nearby computer and sat down working feverantly on it. In a few hours time the hunters were once again called together. This time however, it was Alia giving the instructions.  
"Our sensors have detected a maverick base, a mobile air platform code named the Hammer. It was one of the ships which was present during the attack on our base. If we knock out that ship we can strike a definite blow to the mavericks, but we must not to knock it out of the sky while it's over any city. I would like to give you more info but we don't have anything more and our time is running short before the ship will begin to move again. Hunters dismissed."

Jet was dismissed from the medbay and eager for action. Because the ship was mobile, the hunters could not teleport to the Hammer. Jet knew this and as the others discussed how best to board it he took to the skys. He flew underneath it, attacking its gun ports and vital systems. Soon, it was unable to do any more damage to the city below. His task completed, he landed on the deck of the massive ship. After fighting off a wave of guards, Jet felt the ship move.  
"I've got to get to the engine room so more hunters can board."

Meanwhile, the hunters had sent up airships of their own in attempt to board the Hammer but they were being knocked out of the sky left and right. Flash and Abyss happened to be aboard one of the lucky ships that hadn't been shot down. Once Jet had taken out the guns they had a much easier time, unfortunately only two hunter transports were left by that time. The hunters landed in the Hammer's garage and charged out of the transports but the mavericks were putting up heavy resistance.  
WABOOM! The transprts blew up taking most of the hunters with it. Flash and Abyss lay pinned down behind a pile of boxes unable to move.

Jet heard commotion in the nearby garage and hurried over to see what the trouble was. To his surprise, some hunters had boarded the Hammer. Unfortunately they were quickly being cut down. Jet hurried in and attacked the mavericks from behind. The remaining hunters took advantage of the confusion and were able to defeat the mavericks in the hanger. As reinforcements were summoned, the hunter in charge looked at Jet, Flash and Abyss.  
"You three, go take care of the engines, we need to get more men up here but we're out of transports. Go, we'll buy you some time."  
Jet nodded. "Thank you sir." He turned to the others, "Lets move!"

The three hunters hacked, slashed and blew their way to the Hammer's engine room. Jet found the main engine and sliced at it but the metal was too strong. "Blast," he thought, "I used my only det pack on the bridge..."  
"Alright guys," began Jet, "On 3 we all need to fire our strongest buster shot at the main engine. 3, 2, 1!"  
The armor could not withstand the force of 3 powerful busters and they felt the ship stop dead in the sky.  
"Good," thought Jet. "That'll keep them from escaping and allow any other hunters to board."  
Suddenly a door was blown open and three heavily armed mavericks charged in.   
"More grunts?" laughed Abyss. "You guys are getting repetitive."  
"Grunts!" cried the leader, "We'll show you!" He charged, saber activated at Jet, who activated his own sabers. Their swords locked and sizzled with electricity. The other two mavericks moved forward to aid their friend but they were blown back by shots from Flash and Abyss. A three on three battle erupted...

Jet decided to try a tricky move. He spun one saber around attracting the mavericks attention to that blade. Jet swung with the other saber and followed up with a quick swipe from the first. He landed a glancing blow causing the maverick to howl in pain. Enraged he swung at Jet who again met his saber causing another deadlock. Jet pushed the maverick's saber upwards exposing his chest, which he burried his second saber into. The maverick fell to the floor smoking.

"Jet! Down!" yelled Flash.  
Jet quickly ducked a lazer blast, Flash leaped over his head and kicked the maverick back into a wall. While he was down Flash quickly dashed forward and stabbed him in the head.  
"Nice work," Jet congradulated him. They turned to watch Abyss who was still grappleing with his maverick.  
Abyss kicked his enemy in the chin and impaled his sabers into his chest. He then moved with unseen speed and cut off the head and legs in one motion. The maverick crashed to the floor.  
"Alright, lets move on," he said.  
"INTRUDERS SIGHTED" came the robotic voice of a maverick drone. Dozens of them had filed through the door and were aiming weapons at the hunters.  
The hunters hesitated for a moment. "... MINE!" as they swiftly cut down each of the drones. The floor was quickly covered in scrap metal.

"So what's next?" asked Abyss.  
"Yeah, we did our job, other hunters can board now," Flash agreed.  
Jet shrugged. "I guess we just systematicly hack this place apart until we find whoever controls it."  
"Sounds fun to me." replied Abyss.  
They searched through the lower areas of the ship but didn't find much.  
"Hmmm...I was hoping he wouldn't be a stereotypical evil guy," sighed Abyss. "He's probably on the bridge or the highest part of the ship.  
"And the bridge is probably the highest place on this ship." Flash pointed out.  
The three continued their slaughter as they went to the elevators. They got inside the glass elevator and pressed the button for the bridge. On the way up they saw many, many grunts...  
When they got to the bridge Jet took out his sabers once more and stood at the ready. Flash and Abyss did likewise.  
The maverick general stepped forward and Abyss whispered to Jet, "Great, he's going to monolog."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Titanium Tortoise  
Model number: dtw 172- armored battle tactician   
Height: 9' 11"  
Weight: 1100lbs  
Armor description: perfectly polished silver, and large angular points on his back polished silver as well and extremely sharp, with badges all over his chest  
Weapon specialty: Pierce Spear (uncharged- fires a single spear in a straight line, can pierce armor, charged- fires hundreds of spears into the air which rain down on the battle field )  
Unit: maverick 2nd  
Short bio: Seeing his friends fall to the virus' influence while he himself did not succomb, Titanium Tortoise sought a cure. Unfortunatly it proved fatal and led to the death of his wife to be. Soon after, he joined Sigma's forces to take over the world so there would be no need for a cure. Titanium Tortoise is extremely intelligent, slow moving and heavily armored.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"So you hope to defeat me? For what purpose? To cure the maverick plague? Why not end the fighting once and for all? Join us, we wouldn't be labeled mavericks if there were none to call us that. We could build a utopian city just for us, our lord and master has already begun preparations for this paradise! Join us and end this destructive conflict!"  
When no response was had he continued.  
"But if you insist on fighting I will certainly not hold back."

Meanwhile, back on the ground, the hunters were trying to put their base back together. One was rumaging around in the scrap of the base and discovered Pyro Cerebrus' husk of a body and core unit. Upon grabbing it all active hunters recieved:  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Burning Chain (fires a wave of flames 4 feet in an undulating motion, charged fires a larger flame burst 10 feet )  
secondary effect- reduces fire damage by 25 and allows minor absorption of heat based techniques  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jet fired a shot at the maverick who immediatly blasted a spear at him. Jet barely avoided being imbaled, the spear went straight into an armored mainframe, it penetrated the armor like nothing.  
"Watch out!" Jet cried to the others, "I doubt even our new armors would absorb that hit."  
He fired shot after shot into the giant tortoise but they either bounced away or had no affect. Jet landed on the other side of Titanium and blasted him with the new fire wave, counting on Abyss to do the same. The fire seemed to have more affect, the tortoise roared and stumbled around and Jet took the opportunity to fly in close and slice a gash in his head. The tortoise roared again and shot hundreds of spears into the air.  
"Oh crap. Watch out guys!" Jet yelled as he ran for cover.

Jet and Abyss looked at Flash who was just standing there watching as the spears shot down towards him.  
"Are you stupid! Get out of the way!"  
Flash smirked, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."  
He blurred out and suddenly there were three of him, then four, then five! They circled around Titanium firing at the confused tortoise. The spears rained down and began striking the decoys, it was impossible to evade them all.  
"HA!" cried the tortoise as he whipped a spear at Flash. It was moving so fast, Flash couldn't get out of the way. It flew into Flash's sholder knocking him back into the wall where he lay unmoving.

Suddenly a moter roared and a ride chaser zoomed over. Reaver leapt out and landed at the general's side, the ride chaser crashed into a heap of boxes buries Jet and Abyss.  
"I see you could use some help, general..." Reaver started.  
"Heh, well I gues you could say that. I am a little outnumbered. Care to help?"  
"Maybe..." Reaver's face shows a sinister smirk. He walked over to Flash's crumpled form.  
"Well look who's down for the count..." he said giving a powerful kick to the stomach.  
"I always wanted to do that," he smiled grabbing him and holding him in the air by his neck. He secretly dropped an energy tank into Flash's pocket and dropped him again.  
Reaver walked back to the general. "Now, let's take these guys out shall we?" he asks.  
Then he activated his scythe revealing blades on both ends. One was the usual ice blade, the other burned with flame...

After lifting the boxes off himself, Jet looked up to see Reaver choking Flash! Jet was appauled, he really thought Reaver would come back to the hunter's side. Leaving Flash in a heap, Reaver strode back to the maverick's side and activated him new double edged scythe. Jet activated his dual sabers again and charged at him, ready for a chaotic battle. Now that Reaver had twice the blades it would be more difficult...

As he ran he noticed Flash get up, he looked full of energy again. He began punching at Reaver which added to the confusion. Titanium took advantage of the Flash's lack of guard and slammed him huge fist into Flash's body. He hit the wall with a dull thud and lay in a heap. As Reaver looked on, Jet ran up and kicked him in the back sending him sprawling. Titanium turned and struck the ground where Jet had been standing a second before. The indent from his massive fist could clearly be seen. Jet fired another blast of fire at the general and ran once more at Reaver.

Reaver got up with a bloody nose. He turned and blasted Jet back and dashed to his master's side once more.  
"Ow! Damn, I should plan these things out better..."  
"Who do you mean?" The tortoise asked.  
Reaver merely grinned as Jet raced towards him. He tightly gripped the weapon in his hand, and took a battle position, glaring at Jet. When he is close enough, Reaver suddenly stabs the firey end of the scythe into the turtoise and jumps over the maverick while ripping the scythe through his belly, exposing the maverick's insides.  
"NOW JET! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE! TAKE HIM OUT!" He yells as he stands on top of the maverick.  
"Gah! You traitor!" The tortoise cried infuriated with Reaver.

"NOW JET! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE! TAKE HIM OUT!" Reaver yelled as he stood on the maverick.  
Jet stopped dumbstruck in mid dash. Then he realized what was happening and charged Titanium, driving his sabers into the head. He noticed Flash had also taken advantage of this opportunity and done some damage as well. Titanium stopped moving, the only sound was the occasional spark from his body. Then Flash dropped to the ground. Before Jet could say a word, Reaver grabbed him and they both teleported away. "Wha-? Reaver! I thought... What the hell is going on?"

END OF CHAPTER 11


	12. Chapter 12

Reaver had Flash tied down to a table while he talked to his commanding officer.  
"So, the general was destroyed by the hunters?" he asked Reaver.  
"Yes. I tried to get there in time but sadly I was too late," replied Reaver as a tear ran down his cheek.  
"And the body? Couldn't you have transported it with you?"  
"No sir, it was surrounded by hunters, if I came closer I would have been reduced to smoking rubble."  
The officer looked him right in the eyes considering his report.  
"Very well. What about this hunter?" he pointed at Flash, "Why did you take him with you?"  
"He is a formidable warrior, I could capture him because he was further away from the group."  
"Well done. He will make a fine addition to our forces once he has been shown the truth.."  
The officer walked to the door.  
"Oh, and one more thing Reaver, please report this to the base commander here. We need to register Titanium's defeat and I believe you were the only witness."  
"Sure thing." Reaver replied.  
The door closed, and Reaver was alone with Flash.

Reaver dropped to the ground with a sigh of relief.  
"God, they're on to me... I can't afford any mistakes at this point..."  
He walked over to Flash.  
"Just play along with me alright? I have a plan..."  
"Why'd you bring me here?" demanded Flash.  
"Because I want to do some damage to the mavericks before they figure out I defected, I want revenge." explined Reaver, "But I knew I couldn't do it alone and since Jet has done so much damage to the mavericks they know his face, they'd suspect something. You on the other hand are fairly unknown to the mavericks. I'd have explained the situation to you guys on the Hammer but the mavericks know instantly when a general dies, it'd look suspitious if I didn't leave soon after, there was no time to explain there."  
"...ok I'll trust you," Flash decided. "So whats the plan? We just rip this place apart?"  
"Keep your pants on." Reaver grumbled at Flash. "If we go in guns blazing we won't live to see tommorow."  
If we go in guns blazing we won't live long enough to see tommorow."  
Reaver pulled a pair of shackles from his bag.  
"Put these on. Don't worry, these are as fragile as they can possibly be. You can pull them apart if needed."  
The two stepped out of the room to find themselves on the wrong end of hundereds of guns.  
"What's the meaning of this?" Reaver yelled angrily.  
"Don't play dumb, Reaver!" the commander yelled standing before his squad, "Did you possibly think you could get away with killing the Turtoise? He was full of recording material! As a matter of fact, we had a pretty nice view of HOW YOU RIPPED HIM APART!"  
Reaver shocked, he couldn't believe he made such a stupid mistake, he and Flash were now as good as dead.  
"What's the matter? Too surprised to speak?" the commander jeered.  
"Sorry Flash, I screwed up..." Reaver whispered. "I'm affraid we have to surrender."  
"I'm sorry Reaver, BUT THE MAVERICKS DO NOT TAKE PRISONERS!" the commander interrupted laughing.  
Reaver activated his scythe as Flash broke his shackles.  
"I guess we then simply have to bring EVERYTHING WE GOT!" Reaver cried fiercely. With a loud battlecry he dashed at the Commander and the bullets began to fly...

With the general dead and Flash and Reaver gone, Jet wasn't sure what to do next. Then he remembered that killing the general was only part of the mission, he was supposed to destroy the Hammer. Unfortunately the massive ship was hovering over the city and he'd destroyed the engines earlier to allow more hunters to board. He stopped to think for a moment about his next course of action. First he told the wounded to return to HQ, or what remained of it. Then he had an idea, instead of destroying the massive ship, it could serve as a temporary HQ. With a fresh wave of hunters, Jet destroyed all the mavericks remaining on the Hammer. Then he radioed Zero with the news, if he wanted to set up base there, the hunters could now do so. They could even add the ship to the hunter's fleet if they could repair the engines.

"Ugh, THERES TOO MANY!" Reaver yelled at Flash, who had his hands full as well.  
The pair fought until exhaustion, Flash collapsed on the ground and Reaver knelt down breathing hard.  
The order to cease fire was given. Shells could be heard falling on the floor but it was soon replaced by a deadly silence. A maverick slowly walked up to the two. He lifted Flash onto his sholder and walked away with him.  
A soldier approached the commander. "Uh sir? What should we do with the other one?"  
"He isn't compatible with 'it'. On top of that, he's a traitor... DESTROY HIM!" He yelled.  
Reaver's eyes widened, his jaw dropped in awe. The mavericks closed around him.  
Flash was carried into the hallway when he regained consciousness. He saw Reaver on the ground and the terrified look in his eyes. The airlock closed and Flash could hear countless of guns firing away behind the doors. A second later, he passed out again...

Meanwhile the mavericks had other plans for the Hammer. They would not let the hunters take control, now that it was lost to them they would use it in the only way they still could. They remotely destroyed the repulsor units keeping the ship afloat above the city and the Hammer began to fall...

-In Hunter HQ-  
Zero stood in the control room. "Status report, what is going on?"  
Hurriedly an officer rushed up to him and handed him a document. As Zero read it his mouth dropped  
"OH NO FKIN WAY!" he yelled, several of the newer hunters dropped what they were doing and stared at him.  
"Get back to work" he yelled at the hunters gapin at him. Then turning back to the officer in a low voice he told him "Prepare the Enigma MkII, we are going to blast it out of the sky!"  
"B-b-b-bu-but sir, that was scrapped years ago. And there are still men aboard the ship!" stammered the officer.  
A loud crunch shook MHHQ and one of the hunters turned, "Zero, the ship is coming in fast and breaking apart. Debris is impacting everywhere."  
Zero turned to the officer. "GET THAT CANNON ONLINE ASAP," he barked.

Meanwhile...  
A black shadow stood in a darkened room. "Soon..." he said.  
A door opened and a lower ranking maverick walked in. "Sir, we have done as you requested and all things are proceeding as planned. However, Titanium Tortise has just been killed."  
"You incompetant fool, you think I don't know that? Really, all these generals are just pawns in my game here. Even you are nothing to the sucess of the plan, though once it comes to fruition it will be a glorious age for all reploids, and we will all be able to enjoy all my hard work."  
With this the black shadowed figure turned and pointed at the maverick before him. A single beam lashed out from the extened finger and struck the maverick in the head, piercing his control chip and killing him instantly. The shadow turned away as the reploid's body detonated leaving a black mark on the ground.

As the ship went into freefall it tipped forward, the floor was no longer lever and Jet began sliding down the side.  
"What the hell is happening?" he wondered.  
Over the comm he could make out voices over the static, "...freefall... the Hammer... Enigma...evacuate..."  
"Get to a stable position and teleport out!" Jet screamed to the hunters as he tried to get his footing.  
Several hunters were able to grab a pole or a door and teleport to safety but Jet couldn't grab anything.  
As the ship's direction changed he was able to get to his feet and run up the side leaping off into the sky as the lazer vaporized the ship.

END OF CHAPTER 12


	13. Chapter 13

Back at MHHQ the hunter's recieved their new weapon and gathered in the control room for their new mission.  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Pierce Spear (uncharged- fires a single spear in a straight line, can pierce armor, charged- fires multiple spears into the air which rain down on the battle field )  
secondary effect: increases strength on all projectile weapons and enables weapons to pierce some light-medium armor  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright" Zero began, "We have reason to believe that the mavericks will be sending an assasin to take out our forces one by one. So from this point on you are all now linked, if one goes offline for any reason the others will be immediately alerted and sent your exact coordinates. This means no monkey business, we can't afford to lose any more hunters. As for the assasin we have to resume normal activity to ensure they do not realise what we know."  
Zero stopped and walked to the left a little as the screen lit up.  
"For the next mission, we heard tell of an abandoned weapons factory we shut down long ago being reawakened and resuming production. Investigate and report, we suspect there may be maverick forces."

Things had been quiet for the past few days. After the destruction of the Hammer, Jet had waited in the remains of MHHQ for any news of Flash or Reaver. But nothing had come. Reaver's motives were still a mystery to him, he couldn't figure out why he had taken Flash and not said a word to him. And the lack of maverick trouble left him uneasy, perhaps they were regrouping after the assault on MHHQ but more likely they were planning some new scheme. Jet had been on the edge for days and he jumped when he heard of the new mission. An abandoned weapons factory was cranking out arms again? The mavericks had been quiet but they were as busy as ever. Jet headed towards the teleporter when the thought struck him that he might be doing this alone. Many of the rookies had been killed in the line of duty or disappeared while on the missions. Now that Flash and Reaver had disappeared his list of allies had grown thin indeed. He hadn't seen Abyss in days either, not since the Hammer. And he didn't like the thought of going in alone. Especially not with this assasin running around, he would much rather have someone to watch his back.  
"Whatever," he thought, "I'll watch my own back, just gotta be careful, can't do anything too reckless. And we are desperately in need of hunters, we lost far too many recently, I've gotta do this right and come back in one piece."

-At the abandoned weapons factory-  
The maverick general stood impatiently as small maverick walked up to him and handed him a vial with blue contents.  
"Gah, what is this?" the maverick general snarled.  
"Backupm" replied the minor maverick.  
"You mean to tell me this... is my entire backup?"   
"Yes sir, this is the purified strain, it won't cause the same thing to happen to you as the previous form did to Tundra."  
"It better not.. how soon until they'll be here?"  
"Sir we expect them to be here any time now."  
"Good, remember make it seem like we're really here to make weapons, not to trap the hunters. It'll do us no good if they figure out what we're up to. The wouldn't have heard all about the assasin, stupid hunters they are. It's all a rouse to lure them here where they'll all meet their demise, one at a time."

Jet was about to leave when he noticed Flash outside heading in the direction of MHHQ. Forgetting all about the mission he ran outside to see how his friend was. Then he pulled out a sword and began attacking! Jet instinctively activated his sabers and barely parried the blows. Flash kept swinging like one possessed, Jet couldn't get a moment's break to ready himself, he was forced to parry again and again as he was beaten backwards. He fell backwards onto the ground and used his feet to flip Flash over the top of him and send him flying. Getting to his feet again, Jet shot Tundra's ice beam at Flash encasing him in a block of ice.  
"JUST BECAUSE I KNEW YOU DOESN'T MEAN I WONT ANNIHILATE YOU!" screamed Flash, breaking free of the ice. Then his backup appeared, "Goodbye Jet it was nice knowing you!" he sneered.  
"Bring it," snarled Jet, "I won't lost to you." He fired a blast of Inundation destroying half the mavericks and washing the rest into the nearby river. He flew up raining energy down on Flash.  
"I don't know why you've gone maverick but you're going down. Go back to where you came from or die now."  
At the same time a battalion of hunters marched out of the base. Flash threw a few daggers in their direction and teleported away laughing.  
"That was odd," thought Jet, "Why would he betray us? No matter, we have a mission to complete."  
Jet turned to the hunters behind him, "Alright, lets storm that factory!"

Inside, the factory was quiet until one of the hanger doors exploded inward. The force of hunters entered the building and began searching for whoever had reactivated the facility.  
There were countless mavericks hanging down from the rafters watching the hunters invade the factory.  
"Hahaha attack them!" said an unknown voice. The mavericks left down and began to attack.

Mavericks began falling from above and the factory was embroiled in chaos, energy flew in every direction. Jet battled his way over to a conveyor belt that was kicking out weapons and grabbed up a gatling gun and began mowing the mavericks down. Slowly the mavericks began to retreat. Jet blasted the final maverick into a heap of scrap and led his team farther into the facility. He didn't like how easily they had given up, he'd expected more resistance than that and his mind was still on the mysterious assasin.  
Suddenly an enormous tire fell from the ceiling crushing several hunters. Jet's eyes fixed on a small brown shape that bounced down in front of them.

"I'm Race Raccoon, and I'll be your destructor tonight, so prepare to be driven to the scrap heap." the general said with a roaring laugh.   
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Race Raccoon  
Model number: hsp 725- high speed attack force unit  
Height: 5' 7"  
Weight: 170 lbs  
Armor description: black and brow striped over chest and legs, has wheels mounted on shoulders, legs ( sides and back) and has a huge black stripe over his eyes, his head is light brown.  
Weapon specialty: Bounce Tire (uncharged- fires 2 tires that bounce forward, charged- covers the user in a giant tire and allows them to bounce over/on enemies or just to get around faster.)  
Unit: maverick 4th  
Short bio: race raccoon was originally a government commissioned unit built for high speed attacks in urban areas, work on him was halted during the latest maverick uprising, and while work was halted, one of the scientists working on him accidentally implanted a piece of sigma that contained a the maverick virus as his anti virus chip. The result was upon activation he turned on his makers and destroyed them all, he then sought out sigma and has been working for him ever since. His attack power is actually quite high despite the fact he uses tires to do his attacking, not much is known about his personality due to his activation led to an immediate viral corruption.  
----------------------------------------------------------------------

"So you're the one who reactivated this factory huh?" He jumped over an incoming tire and did a backflip landing on the weapons belt. He quickly snatched up two machine guns and began blasting at the raccoon indicating his hunters to do the same. The maverick moved with unseen speed and seemingly dodged all the bullets. He shot by like lightning, felling one hunter after another.

All of a sudden Flare slammed through the window. He landed behind the racoon.  
"Woah, Flare? I thought you were dead!" the raccoon cried in surprise. He was distraced long enough for Jet to get a few shots in forcing him to duck for cover.  
"Yeah, I'm alive. If you can call it that..." He replied in a cool tone. He pointed to his armless shoulder, apparently not yet fixed.  
"So, you came to let us a hand here? We really could use some reinforcements..."  
Flare suddenly grabs a machine gun from his back and points it to the general.  
"Not quite..."  
As he unloaded his bullets the raccoon ran for his life. "Flash!" he yelled, "I know you're in here, give me a hand!"  
Suddenly Jet saw a shurikan coming at him. Dropping the guns, Jet pulled out his sabers and spun then around deflecting the projectiles. He heard commotion behind him as his troops fired at everything, including Flare.  
"NO!" Jet yelled, sheilding Flare's body with his own. "Don't shoot him, fire at the raccoon, fire at Flash!"  
Suddenly Race appeared behind Jet and decided to take advantage of his distraction.  
"Mwahahahah!" laughed Race as he grabbed Jet by the back of the neck and lifted him up. "Hahaha you thought you could beat me, but now you're all mine!"  
He held Jet's arms still while Flash dashed up and slashed him in the chest. Jet cried out in pain as he struggled unable to block or dodge. Suddenly a blast of fire hit Race in the head and he hopped away shouting angrily. Flare ran forward and gave Flash a kick to the face allowing Jet to get to his feet. Jet's troops fired as Flash ran for it but several were wiped out suddenly by a giant tire. Race laughed as he stood on the catwalk above. Angrilly, Jet hurled both his sabers at the catwalk, neatly slicing through the metal. Race cried out as he fell through the air. The general's body slammed into the metal below breaking one of his legs. He looked up weakly to see the elemental cannon inches from his face.  
"Scum," snarled Jet as he blasted the maverick into nothing.

Flash was so busy running from the hunters he didn't notice Flare standing before him. Flare grabbed him and slammed him against a wall holding his single hand tightly around his neck.  
"It's your fault Reaver had fallen isn't it?" he snarled angrilly.  
"Y..you think that I did it? You fool, even if I did I would have done it a much more...whats the word...colorful way!" Flash said, flipping around double kicking Flare in the chest and knocking him away. He picked Flare up over his head intending to snap him in half.  
"Any last words before I rip you apart? Hey, Race come here! We have a nuisance that needs decapitating!" he called.  
"Sorry do disappoint you," snarled Jet as he sliced Flash in the back causing him to drop Flare. Flash howled in pain and hopped away, out of Jet's immediate reach.  
"Your friend seems a little bit dead," continued Jet gesturing to the remains of the raccoon maverick. "And you're the next piece of roadkill!"  
As he spoke, Jet's troops also surrounded Flash, as did Flare.  
Jet waves his saber in front of Flash threateningly, "Surrender or die maverick!"

Flash collasped on the ground, "C..come..on...Jet...you...wouldn't...kill..your...friend...would...you?"  
He dropped his sword pretending to be very low on power and as the hunters lowered their weapons, he jumped up and did a spin attact hitting all who surrounded him. Recovering fast Jet blasted Flash back onto his butt.  
"You aren't my friend, you're a maverick," replied Jet as he swiftly sliced Flash's weapon arm off. "And now you're going to tell me why you became a maverick or you'll find your head down there next to that arm!"  
"You really want to know!" Flash screamed, "Well I'm sorry to disippoint you but I don't know, the last I saw of Reaver he was surrounded by mavericks and then they did something to my head and I don't know why I hate you but I know you are against me!"  
Flash struggled to get up. "Ok fine! Kill me! Though I don't see how you can deal with murdering your own friend!"

Flare got up weakly, sparks flying off him. In an act of instinct, he grabs his rifle and sprays bullets into Flash's direction...

Jet was considering his options when 2 of his men fell to the ground. Sensing opportunity Flash tried to break free and run but Jet jumped on him. He ordered his troops to tie and gag Flash and return him to hunter base.  
"Maybe Alia can figure out whats wrong with him," he thought as a few men teleported away with Flash. He turned to face the enemy who had shot his hunters in the back and was surprised to see Flare standing weakly holding a rifle.  
"What the hell was that for?" demanded Jet pointing a saber in Flare's direction.

Flare stood quiet for a while, still and holding his rifle for a time.. More sparks came from his head while his eyes twitched a bit, he was clearly badly damaged.  
"I-I guess you won't need me anymore here."  
He dropped his weapon and clumsily walked to the window he crashed through earlier.  
"I'll think I'll lay low for a while, I don't think we'll ever s- "  
He got interrupted by a strange bleep from his head, which seemed to catch his attention.  
"Hmmm... On second thought, maybe we will see each other again after all!" He laughed a bit and threw himself out of the window falling splat onto the ground below. He got up and hopped onto a nearby ride chaser and rode off into the distance, swerving as if he were incredibly drunk...

Jet would've been more surprised but he'd come to expect such acts from the Reaver models. He didn't know what Flare was up to but at this point it didn't matter, their paths would no doubt cross again one day when he least expected it. He was however worried about Reaver, after seeing what had happened to Flash he feared the worst for his friend. He let out a sigh as Flare drove off into the distance, occasionally swerving and hitting things due to his one arm.  
Jet strode back into the factory as his team completed the mission.  
"Jet to HQ," he said speaking into the comm, "I've secured the factory and all hostiles have been eliminated. Do we set charges and blow the place up or could we use this for ourselves somehow?"

Suddenly a huge shadow appeared over everyone, they paused once more and looked up. The massive craft blocked out the remaining light from the setting sun. Without warning it fired a single shot into the crowd. It struck the factory sparing the hunters the choice of its fate. The blast knocked everyone away damaged, but alive.  
One of the hunters landed and as he opened his eyes he saw the badly mangled head of Race Raccoon. Hoping it still had some power left he tried to copy it...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Weapon specialty: Bounce Tire (uncharged- fires 2 tires that bounce forward, charged- covers the user in a giant tire and allows them to bounce over/on enemies or just to get around faster.)  
secondary- (only when equpped with this weapon) increases users speed by 25  
also (regardless of if equipped or not) adds an airdash/dash (to users with out normal airdash/dash capabilities) /additional airdash/dash (to users with airdash/dash abilities.)  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Alia turned Flash over on his side and began to search for anything unusual. "I think I have it," she said. "See this flashing device on the back of his head? I think that is the cause of this mess. I'm afraid if we take it off though that he'd be killed..."  
Suddenly Flash began to shake violently, straining to get off the table on which he was tied. Suddenly he burst loose and punched the closest hunter. Another dashed forward and tackled him.  
Alia ran forward and tore the chip off his head, "We'll have to take that chance I'm afraid.."  
Flash's body went completely limp as he lay unmoving on the floor.

"Take him to the maintanence room." ordered Zero. "But watch him, he's played dead before as a ruse. However, if he can be saved I want Lifesaver to do it, we're in dire need of hunters now."  
Jet walked into the room and watched as Flash was carried away. Then an explosion rocked MHHQ.  
"The hell!" cried Zero, "That came from the inside!"  
"That is correct Zero," came a clam voice from the smoking hole. It was one of the hunters, Spread Sphinx.  
"Zero, I'm defecting to the mavericks," she continued.  
"I see..." replied Zero. "Spread, you realize this is Hunter HQ right and that there are hundreds of hunters here right now?"  
"I don't care, most of them are rookies anyway. None are as seasoned combatants as you, I or as X was."  
"Spread, can I just ask-" began one of the hunters but Spread cut him off.  
"I don't care how many hunters there are here. It's been a dream of mine to fight the legendary X ever since I was first built but repeatedly he refused to fight me. 'Fighting is wrong,' is all he ever said. Then he died, so I couldn't get the chance to anymore. I'm going to fight the legendary Zero instead. I demand a dual, there will be no other hunters involved."  
Sadly Zero shook his head. "You know you always could have asked, you didn't need to go maverick like this."  
Spread Sphinx just stared at him.  
"Fine, in two days I'll fight you. I suggest you leave now if you don't want all of these hunters to pick you apart."  
"I'll be here," replied the former hunter.

END OF CHAPTER 13


End file.
